Health || Aside from the “worrying” number of deaths from infections picked up in the nation’s hospitals, health chiefs in Portugal admit that infections resulting from surgeries are “on the increase” while the whole issue of hospital infections is “above the European average”.
“There is still a lot to be done in the way of improvements,” José Artur Paiva of the DGS (health department) told reporters.
Paiva is a co-author of a new report that shows 17,715 people died in Portuguese hospitals over the last five years due to infections contracted after admission.
Their deaths were “associated with treatments which included the use of invasive devices like catheters”.
Other associations were infections picked up when patients were connected to ventilating equipment.
“We can’t draw conclusions as to what caused these patients’ deaths as they were all in very serious clinical situations,” explained Paiva.
But he stressed that even though medical equipment used in hospitals is sterilised, it is still “handled”.
“There is still a lot to be done,” he agreed – highlighting danger ‘areas’ as Caesarean sections and gall bladder surgeries.
According to CM, the percentage of deaths associated with patients fitted with catheters was almost 38% in 2013 alone.
New hospital “shock”: 17,715 deaths from infections in five years
