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The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, ordered this Wednesday that Lisbon hospitals suspend all non-urgent activity due to the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. The information is contained in an email sent to the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, advances the ‘Expresso’.
In this sense, all hospitals in the Lisbon region “must immediately scale their contingency plans to the highest level”, as well as “ensure the allocation of human resources to the critical care area”, the email can read. , sent late in the morning today, to which the newspaper had access.
According to the same publication, the objective is to concentrate all human resources in the intensive care area, which is currently the one most affected by the public health crisis, a decision that will take effect immediately.
Thus, to avoid that hospitals stop responding, the minister orders “to suspend the programmed activity of non-urgent care that can revert to reinforcing care for the critical patient”, that is, to mobilize everything for intensive care.
‘Expresso’ also said that the decision was made after a meeting between the Ministry of Health and the ARS of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, in order to respond to the pressure registered recently, guaranteeing “response to a demand that is expected to grow in the coming days”.
Hospitals in the Lisbon region have reported high occupancy rates, many of which have exceeded (or are approaching) 90% in recent days, such as Amadora Sintra and Santa Maria in Lisbon, but also Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures. .
The Beatriz Ângelo hospital has already reached the limit of its capacity, with an increase in the number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 by 30%, between December 31 and January 4. Faced with this scenario, users have to wait for beds to be available, without being able to be treated elsewhere, because the occupation of the rest of the hospitals in the region exceeds 90%.
The executive administrator of the Beatriz Ângelo hospital, Artur Vaz, told ‘RTP’ that “what worries us most are level 2 intensive care patients, who are under non-invasive ventilation and level 3, ventilated patients, because our la intensive care unit (ICU) is currently exhausted ”.
The scenario is also similar in the Amadora Sintra hospital, where the occupancy rate in the wards of patients hospitalized by the new coronavirus even reached 90%, while the occupancy in ICUs is now set at around 75%, according to ‘ Correio da Mañana ‘(CM).
The same publication says that the Santa María de Lisboa hospital, belonging to the Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, is about to reach its maximum capacity, registering 462 emergencies on Monday (not all situations in Covid-19), this being the third worst day since March.
Outside the region, the situation is also complicated in other hospitals, specifically in the General Hospital of the Hospital Center of the University of Coimbra (CHUC), which is currently experiencing a situation of scarcity of human resources, both in the emergency room and in the plant. hospitable. Also in Guarda, the scene is similar, already exhausting the capacity of occupation.
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