An alert has been sounded as the country approaches ‘the coldest months of the year’ (in which people habitually get sick): “if nothing is done, a million calls to the SNS 24 Line, used as a triage system before people arrive in casualty departments, will go unanswered – leaving citizens without the support they need during the autumn and winter”.
The risk of “persistent overload” has been identified in a study by national and international researchers, and is explained today by Expresso newspaper.
From data taken from the SNS 24 Line between January and May this year (the most recent data published, in other words), investigators forecast that unless something (quite radical) changes, the line will fail.
“Projections for the start of 2026 anticipate up to 900,000 attempted calls per month, potentially leaving almost 300,000 unanswered per month”, they say.
“These numbers add up to more than a million unanswered calls throughout the winter and are a conservative estimate – as we assume that mandatory telephone triage will not be implemented in 12 local health units (serving a population of approximately 2.5 million people) that have not yet joined the (SNS24 Line triage) programme.”
The situation comes as a result of what Expresso terms “the increase in functionalities assigned by the government, without a proportional reinforcement of human and technological resources”.
Although the programme obliging people to ‘call ahead’ to the SNS 24 Line was designed to reduce the increasing (and sometimes unnecessary) overload of emergency care, the line itself was implemented “quickly without corresponding investment in infrastructure”, criticise the study’s authors, which include health economist Eduardo Costa and Ara Darzi, the doctor who carried out a reform of the UK’s NHS health system, says Expresso.
The authors stress the line “has been operating above its capacity for more than two years” and justify the partial failure of the service with the delay in access.
For example, the answering time for any incoming call should not exceed 15 seconds, but “a considerable number of calls” have never “reached this key indicator” (ie they were answered beyond, often well beyond, the 15-second target.
Expresso cites figures that show that from June to September this year, the line answered more than 1.6 million calls – “an increase of approximately 56%, that is, an additional 600,000 calls”.
More than half of the calls (58%) were answered in less than two minutes, 6% in up to five minutes and 15% in up to 15 minutes. That still leaves 21% that were presumably answered later than 15 minutes, or not at all. Expresso gives some examples of people waiting between 20 and 40 minutes (some still not receiving an answer). In short, there was no indication of any calls being answered within the required 15 seconds…
Telephone operator Altice confirms that the increase in call volumes recorded is well above ‘the estimates initially provided for in the contract’ – thus both the health ministry’s Shared Services (SPMS) and Altice “guarantee that they are working on solutions”
“The operator has made a sustained investment, in conjunction with the SPMS, in the organisation and training of teams, in technological modernisation and in the optimisation of service circuits, which has been strengthening overall efficiency,” a source from the SPMS has told Expresso.
Altice gives an example: “In October alone, 500 new professionals were registered for training.”
Expresso’s figures indicate that 3,200 professionals are currently working on the SNS 24 Line, which responded to 4.3 million calls between January and September.
The paper adds that training professionals to work on the SNS 24 Line is not a ‘simple matter’: they need specialist knowledge – particularly when answering calls from pregnant women. Thus, the “recognised” lack of health professionals in this country is adding to the likelihood of a very complicated winter.
Last month, Secretary of State for Health Management Francisco Rocha Gonçalves, ‘guaranteed that the SNS 24 Line (808 24 24 24) is prepared to respond in the winter’, saying that Altice will “adapt the technology” and “will do so with Artificial Intelligence”. But that is not how Expresso ends its story. Indeed, Gonçalves’ guarantee is not even in Expresso’s story. “Efforts this far have not had effect and experts fear the worst”, says the paper.
“One operator described how every Monday and at ‘peak periods’ there is an internal message that repeats: Hello, we have a lot of calls waiting and need all the help possible. We are grateful to those who can extend, anticipate or “log in” even if they do not have a shift, even for a short time, as it is a great help”.
Source material: Expresso/ Lusa
