Health remains poor – Macau Today

For years, the Portuguese people have suffered from a lack of organization, management, funding and professionals in the health sector. New hospitals and health centers are constantly being built, but the service to users is getting worse year by year. We have witnessed the work of the most diverse ministers, each with their own ideas, but the situation has only gotten worse. There have even been some who resigned after having performed well during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Fundamentally, the blame is on two factors: a lack of doctors and nurses, and poor hospital management. The current government has put in place emergency plans, but nothing has changed, and last week the president of the National Doctors’ Union once again drew attention to the fact that the gap remains serious.

People are still facing closed services and pregnant women in particular are still unaware that they can give birth closer to home. I heard my grandfather say “you can’t joke with your health”. However, what is happening in this area seems to be a cat and mouse game, with an aggravating factor being the increasing number of negligence cases while investigations do not end with sanctions against the perpetrators.

There is no reason why a case that shocked the whole country should not be punished in Viana do Castelo: a 57-year-old man, father of two, who for several days had complained to his wife that he felt pain in his chest and arms, especially when he had to drive a tractor.

The situation got worse and his wife took him to the hospital. During triage, the nurse (?) or so-called nursing technician (what is that?) put a green bracelet on him, which meant the least serious condition. The patient’s wife tried to tell the “specialist” who handed over the green bracelet that the case could be serious and heart-related.

The “specialist” did not let her speak at all, stammering: “It’s the virus”. The patient waited for seven hours, no one took care of him, and finally, when he became seriously ill, he was taken to the intensive care unit and died, the autopsy concluded that he was treated for a heart attack. The closest family members are in disbelief about what happened. The woman does not know what to do to support the children, since the victim was the main breadwinner of the family.

The Viana do Castelo hospital ordered an investigation and now the surprise is: the report concludes that the case is closed. Archived? So incompetence and negligence left a single person dead? A patient on the verge of a heart attack, diagnosed with a virus, waits seven hours without treatment, dies, and the hospital closes the investigation? Besides being inhumane, this is also a criminal act that deserves a heavy sentence. Nothing happened.

In the eyes of the hospital, everything was done within the rules. It is disgusting, and obviously the family will take legal action for this. I hope that the hospital’s investigation conclusions will be treated fairly and those who are responsible for the patient’s death will be punished by the court.

Similar cases have happened in this country, with the biggest complaints directed at those who screen patients arriving at the hospital. There has to be some different review than just saying there is a lack of doctors or nurses, they are poorly paid, have no working conditions and the SNS needs more investment. We don’t understand why some health centres are running well while others have internal management…

SNS has excellent professionals and has improved care and surgery, although the wait for a rheumatology consultation at Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon is almost a year. SNS does not require guardianship to decide on parity of services with private hospitals.

Private services are for the rich, the SNS must serve the general public better and better. State investment must become a reality, and the Minister of Health must not cancel a very important meeting scheduled with the National Federation of Doctors, as he did last week. You cannot neglect the most important professionals who provide assistance to those who are seriously ill at their doorstep.

The Minister of Health must know that doctors are traumatized by exhaustion and ridiculous salaries if we count unpaid overtime that forces them to prefer private work and are tired of seeing people die in their arms because they were only nine, twelve or waited 20 hours on a stretcher to see them. Where is the humanism that these rulers preach? In the financial coffers? Apologies for the fact that the budget does not cover everything? Before deciding to build airports, high-speed railways and new bridges, think about the people and the health sector, which is undoubtedly what is most needed to benefit the people. The opposite is demagoguery, pretense, empty promises or big contracts that provide some income for a friend’s company.

Postscript – Portugal has reacted positively to the appointment of António Costa to the high post of President of the European Council.