Hospital de Santa Maria had 30% more influx in emergency rooms on Saturday

Hospital de Santa Maria recorded a 30 percent increase in emergency room attendance on Saturday night compared to the previous Saturday, partly due to the diversion of patients from other units, the hospital said in a statement.

“The Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte (CHULN) recorded a high turnout at its Central Emergency Service this weekend, with a total of around 460 consultations on Saturday, December 3rd alone. This number corresponds to over 150 episodes of urgency compared to the same day of the previous week, that is, an increase of 30%”, the statement reads.

Hospital de Santa Maria referred that the registered increase results not only from a greater increase in demand by users “from the CHULN reference area”, but also “from the network operation of the National Health Service, with Hospital de Santa Maria to support other units in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley that activated the diversion of patients by the Guidance Center for Urgent Patients (CODU), namely ensuring the response to patients in the Loures area”.

Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures, closed early Saturday night until 8:00 am today for patients referred by INEM.

Regarding Saturday’s situation, the statement underlines that “as a differentiated end-of-line hospital, even in a context of high affluence, it contributed to ensuring the articulation of the response between hospitals in the SNS”, also expressing “public gratitude” to health professionals ” for the way in which they have sought to mitigate the impact that high demand always has on waiting times and on user comfort”.

Around 21:30 today, according to the ‘website’ dedicated to the National Health Service, waiting times for urgent patients (yellow wristband) at Hospital de Santa Maria were three hours, with 35 people waiting for care.

Very urgent patients had to wait 1:20 hours to be seen.