North and Algarve are the only regions with full maternity hospitals at Christmas

The Government resorted to advertisements on newspaper pages to reveal the list of maternity hospitals and hospitals open during the Christmas period, at the weekend. North and Algarve are the only regions with all maternity hospitals in full operation.

The North region and the Algarve will keep all the birthing blocks working at Christmas, while all other regions have constraints. In Lisbon and Vale do Tejo there will be sharing of resources and alternating closures.

According to the announcement published in national newspapers, such as “Jornal de Notícias”, 29 maternity hospitals of the SNS, from North to South of the country, will be open during the weekend. According to the announcement, which also included a list of conditioned birth blocks, with their respective schedules, on the 24th, 221 health centers will be in operation, a number that drops to 180 on the 25th, the Christmas holiday.

According to the list in the published announcement, Porto and Lisbon will have the main birthing blocks operating on the 24th and 25th: São João and Santo António, in Invicta, Santa Maria and Maternidade Alfredo da Costa, in the capital, in which pregnant women can also count on the Beatriz Ângelo hospital, in Loures, the Garcia de Orta, in Almada, in addition to the Barreiro and Cascais hospitals.

To the North, in addition to São João and Santo António, the birth wards of the hospitals in Bragança, Vila Real, Viana do Castelo, Braga, Guimarães, Famalicão, Póvoa de Varzim, Matosinhos, Penafiel, Santa Maria da Feira and Vila New from Gaia.

In the centre, women and pregnant women can count on the University Hospital of Coimbra, such as the Centro Hospitalar (CH) of Baixo Vouga, in Aveiro, the CH of Tondela, Leiria, the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Castelo Branco and the CH of Cova da Beira, in Covilhã.

According to data revealed by the “Born Safely” operation, in the Algarve, hospitals in Faro and Portimão are open, while in Alentejo Portalegre and Évora provide assistance to women during the 24th and 25th of December.

Nine birth blocks will be conditioned at Christmas, of which seven are from the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Health Administration: São Francisco Xavier, Amadora-Sintra, Vila Franca de Xira, Abrantes, Caldas da Rainha, Santarém and Setúbal. Add to this list, Beja and Guarda.

The conditionings are foreseen for two types of schedules, until next Monday: Caldas da Rainha, Vila Franca de Xira and Setúbal will be closed on Friday from 8 am on the 23rd to 8 am on the 26th. Francisco Xavier, in Lisbon, and Amadora-Sintra – will be closed from 8 pm on the 23rd to 8 am on the 26th.

Among the nine conditional ones, Abrantes, Beja and Santarém are closed for 24 hours, from 8 am on the 25th to 8 am on the 26th, while Guarda closes only on Christmas night, from 7 pm on the 24th to 9 am on the 25th.