The Commission of Users in Defense of Public Services of Évora today called on the government to respond to the needs of health professionals, considering that constraints in hospital units cannot be the “new normal”.
In an action held this morning to mark the day that the pediatric emergency room at the Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora (HESE) is closed and to denounce the conditioning of the emergency room over the Christmas period, users delivered a gift to the government.
“As a symbolic gesture, we left a box saying that the present the government is giving us is a Christmas without emergencies. In reality, the response to emergencies exists, but it is conditioned,” Mónia Lopes, spokesperson for the users’ committee, told Lusa.
The spokeswoman called on the government to “respond to the health professionals and give [an] answer to the health situation”.
The gift was placed “on the wall of the hospital”, “in front of the emergency room”, accompanied by “a poem alluding to the Christmas season” and a sentence that read “The Government’s gift is an ’emergency-free’ Christmas in Évora”, he said.
“This can’t be a one-off issue, it’s becoming the new normal and we can’t accept this situation, which is why, as a symbolic gesture, we’re calling for an urgent response to health issues,” he said.
According to her, the event took place between 11:00 and 11:30 today and was attended by “a total of 20 participants”, including members of the users’ committee and the general public.
To Lusa, the spokeswoman expressed her concern about the constraints at HESE, one of the “reference hospital units” in the Évora district, “at the peak of winter”.
“We already have these blatant situations of lack of response and lack of human resources in terms of health professionals, who are exhausted, tired and we are afraid and we know that when the peak of winter arrives, this situation will get worse,” he stressed.
That’s why the Évora Users’ Commission in Defense of Public Services is demanding “definitive answers” from the Ministry of Health.
“If we are told that there is no lack of money to invest in the National Health Service, we want that investment and to have answers for people who have health problems,” he concluded.
HESE’s Pediatric Emergency Service, the hospital said on Thursday, has been closed since 09:00 today until 14:00 on Sunday, and the closure will be repeated on Tuesday until 14:00.
The hospital unit in Alentejo appealed to users to contact the Health Line 24 before going to the service so that they can be referred depending on the severity of their clinical condition.
