ERS evaluates all situations of death known at the Hospital de Portimão

A Health Regulatory Entity (ERS) opened an evaluation process to all situations of death known publicly at the Hospital de Portimão, announced today the regulator, the day after a fourth death was reported.

In a response to the agency Lusa, the ERS states that “in the framework of its tasks it has opened an evaluation process with the aim of investigating the facts reported in the media about the deaths at the Hospital de Portimão, of the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS), which includes the analysis of all situations known publicly”.

The deaths, after several hours of waiting, of two elderly people who appealed in October and November to the emergency room of Portimão Hospital without allegedly having been attended by a doctor.

In an interview with CMTV, on Monday, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, also referred to the case of a child, who died at the Hospital de Faro, after being transferred from the Hospital de Portimão, advancing that she suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest “at home still”.

On Tuesday, the secretary-general of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, said he had learned that there was a fourth death in the hospital of Portimão, “for lack of care due in the health system”.

In view of these situations, the Health Minister announced on Monday the resignation of the president of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of the Algarve, Tiago Martins da Silva.

“ Of course, I am going to fire the chairman of the board of directors, because I do not think there are conditions, at this time, to maintain in the performance of these functions someone who has been in the ULS for more than two years, knows that these situations occur and that has been warned ", said Ana Paula Martins, in an interview with CMTV.

Ana Paula Martins also said that she signed an order on Monday to open an inspection to the entire operation of the urgency of Portimão and that it is not limited to these specific cases.

“ I think the urgency is not working well, because if it was working well, cases like these would hardly occur, even though we do not know at the moment whether there is a causal relationship” with the deaths of the two users, said Ana Paula Martins.

The governor also pointed out that this “is not a new situation” of the organization of the service, claiming that she received a letter from an emergency director “to draw the attention of the board of directors to the conditions under which, effectively, the urgency was working”.

The letter, among several points, referred to the fact that “there are urgent scheduled doctors who do not observe or take on patients in the emergency department,” said Ana Paula Martins.