A 74-year-old patient suffered a stroke at Faro hospital and was transferred to Lisbon’s Hospital de S. José which refused to accept him for reasons that remain unclear.
Due to poor weather, the patient, Sr Sebastião Pereira, was taken by ambulance rather than by helicopter, to Coimbra hospital where he died this weekend.
Faro Hospital lacked the specialist equipment needed to treat the patient and acted correctly in transferring the patient. Whatever happened in Lisbon has raised a media storm, despite the reasons not being clear for the re-routing of Sr Pereira from Lisbon to Coimbra.
The Left Bloc has seized this opportunity to draw a parallel between cuts in Portugal’s National Health Service and the recent bailout of bust bank Banif which now has been sold to Santander with a dowry of over €2 billion.
Bloquista Marisa Matias said today that if there is money for Banif, there also has to be money for the NHS.
Matias blames the death of Sr Pereira on a lack of facilities across the NHS, calling his death, "a situation that is more related to impoverishment due to austerity" which has had "concrete consequences for the lives of real people."
Matias, a presidential candidate supported by the Left Bloc, said there should be “a direct investment in the National Health Service” to avoid situations such as those that have led to the death of patients. She does not buy the reason that there is no money, "€2.2 billion for Banif available in one day. The equivalent to the cuts made in the NHS budget."
In Matias’ view, "this has to do with ideological choices that consistently have placed the interests of markets and economic interests ahead of people's lives."
The Algarve Hospital management under Dr Pedro Nunes said on Sunday that all patient transfer standards had been met but that an investigation will take place, although no complaint had been received by the family of the deceased.
Dr Nunes said that the transfer of patients is made and organised by the Emergency Patients Guidance Center (CODU) ideally by helicopter, unless prevented by poor weather or the condition of the patient
"When this happens, the transport is by ambulance and the hospital in Faro transferred the patient along with an accompanying doctor and a nurse specialising in intensive care," said Dr Nunes, adding that Sr Pereira needed neuroradiology and, as there is no such service in Faro.”
Any inquiry will seek to ascertain whether the referral to Lisbon was in error, also whether Lisbon’s refusal to accept Sr Pereira was justified.
In the meantime, the media seem keen to link this case to government cuts when this is by no means the certain cause of the patient’s demise.
The patient from Faro had been in Coimbra since December 15th and died this weekend.
