32 pregnant women were referred to private institutions in the first two months of the year

In the first two months of the year, 32 pregnant women were sent to private sector maternity hospitals.

According to the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), in a note sent to newsrooms, of the 4,140 births, less than 1.5% were sent to units agreed with the SNS whenever the installed capacity in the region was filled. of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley.

On the other hand, when the capacity of the SNS in this region is already full, the plan defined by DE-SNS allows the Urgent Patient Guidance Center of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (CODU/INEM) to guide pregnant women in labor, with more than 36 weeks of gestation and without risk factors, for the private.

In this way, the capacity of the SNS “has been able to respond to needs” and, in its balance sheet, it reports that it has sent, on average, one pregnant woman every two days to the private sector.

It is recalled that the Executive Management of the SNS decided to maintain, until the end of this month, the operating scheme of Operation ‘Born Safely in the SNS’ that was in force in the first quarter of this year, allowing 28 of the 43 services to operate uninterruptedly. , two maternity wards will only treat referred patients and eight will have break days due to the shortage of doctors.