The obstetrics service at the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital in Loures will be restricted until 08:00 on Monday and will not receive pregnant women transported by ambulance, a source from the fire department told Lusa today.
The firefighters of Camarate, a department in the Beatriz Ângelo Hospital area, have been informed that the delivery room and the gynecology and obstetrics emergency rooms of that health unit will not receive pregnant women transported by ambulance until 08:00 on Monday, and that the information should be passed on to the CODU (Urgent Patients Guidance Center), which will forward the users to another hospital in the Lisbon region, explained a source from that department.
The restrictions on obstetrics services at Beatriz Ângelo Hospital in relation to pregnant women referred by the CODU and INEM were also confirmed to Lusa by the regional secretary for Lisbon and the Tagus Valley of the Independent Doctors’ Union (SIM), Maria João Tiago, justifying the situation by the lack of doctors.
Maria João Tiago said that these services have “minimal teams” and are only receiving pregnant women who travel by their own means, but warned of the constraints that these users may face.
The same official also said that during the morning the obstetrics emergency service at Cascais Hospital had restrictions, but now the situation has been normalized.
SIM’s regional secretary for Lisbon and the Tagus Valley said that this “situation is not new” and is related to “the lack of doctors in the National Health Service”.
Maria João Tiago reaffirmed that “there is no shortage of doctors in the Lisbon region, only that they are not in the SNS because it is not attractive”.