Santa Maria reacts by creating translation app
Demand for emergency services by foreign citizens from countries outside the European Union has almost tripled at Lisbon’s Santa Maria hospital, rising from an annual average of 900 to 2,500 in the last three years.
According to Carlos Martins, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Santa Maria Local Health Unit (ULS), between 93% and 95% of these citizens have no health insurance, which increases the hospital’s costs, as it has no mechanism for recovering these expenses.
According to data, around 900 foreign nationals used to visit the hospital’s various emergency services annually. There were 940 in 2021; in 2022, the hospital recorded an increase to 2,300 and in 2023 that number went up to 2,700. The hospital estimates that this year, the number could reach 2,900.
“There has been a lot of growth, not only in obstetrics and gynecology, but also in the area of infectious diseases,” said Carlos Martins, considering that much of this demand is “the result of the growth in immigration to Portugal, particularly (from) Asia”.
Speaking to members of the parliamentary Health Committee, Martins stressed that concerns centre on the safety of the health professionals and risks to the patient. In this regard, he pointed to the language barrier and said that the hospital is going to start making applications available in 10 services that use Artificial Intelligence for simultaneous translation.
The application will allow 12 languages to be translated, and the computer will then suggest the prescription in the user’s language of origin, in addition to Portuguese.
“Everything to reduce the risk and increase the safety of the (medical) act,” he said.
Source material: LUSA
