Around 2,800 hospital beds in Portugal are being occupied unnecessarily, mainly because of social issues or a lack of places in long-term care facilities, according to the executive director of the National Health Service (SNS), Álvaro Almeida.
“We know this is a reality within the National Health Service. There are a few thousand cases, around 2,800 people, who should not be in acute hospitals,” Almeida told journalists on Wednesday, December 24.
He said these patients should either already have been transferred to the National Network of Long-Term and Integrated Care or referred to appropriate social support services.
The SNS boss was speaking during a visit to Santos Silva Hospital in Vila Nova de Gaia, part of the Gaia/Espinho Local Health Unit in the Porto region.
He said addressing inappropriate hospital admissions would free up capacity for acute care. He added that around 1,500 long-term care beds are authorised to open in the coming months, although not in time to ease pressure during the peak of the flu season.
In the social sector, Almeida said the government is seeking solutions for between 800 and 1,000 cases classified as purely social hospitalisations. He explained that 747 cases have already been formally recognised and validated by Social Security, while other cases identified by hospitals have not yet been officially confirmed, accounting for differences in reported figures.
“This explains some of the divergence in the numbers. But broadly, we are talking about around 1,000 social cases and 2,000 others,” he said.
On Monday, Health Minister Ana Paula Martins estimated that more than 1,200 patients remain in hospital despite having been discharged, due to the absence of alternative care solutions. She said progress was expected in the coming days.
“We have been working with Social Security for about a year, and I hope we will have developments very soon,” the minister said after visiting Vila Franca de Xira Hospital, in the Lisbon district.
She said the government aims to find solutions for “at least a few hundred people” so they can leave hospital. “It is a serious risk for patients to remain in hospital when they no longer need to be there,” she said.
Ana Paula Martins acknowledged that finding placements takes time. She noted that, nationally, a further 400 patients have been added to the 800 already discharged but still occupying hospital beds.
“It is an extremely difficult situation to manage,” she said. “We are in the Christmas and New Year period, and we need beds for patients who genuinely require hospital care.”
Source: Lusa
