After baby’s death, regulator asks ULS in the Algarve to guarantee permanent pediatric transfer

The Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) issued an instruction to the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS) to guarantee the permanent operation of pediatric inter-hospital transfers, following the death of a baby a year ago, it was announced today.

On May 19 last year, an 11-month-old baby died in the Portimão hospital, while waiting to be transferred by ambulance from the pediatric inter-hospital transport service to the Pediatric Intensive Medicine service at the Faro hospital, approximately 60 kilometers away. .

According to a deliberation by the ERS, the transfer between hospitals did not take place, since the aforementioned ambulance, “the differentiated means capable of guaranteeing a faster response to the situation in question, was inoperative due to lack of a doctor”.

In the deliberation, dated January 12th and released today, the regulatory entity considers that the Local Health Unit, formerly Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA), «failed to fulfill a fundamental obligation imposed upon it, that of guaranteeing permanent operation» of transport.

The inoperability of the ambulance led to the helicopter from the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) being called, which began the process of transferring the baby.

However, «in addition to hemorrhaging through the central catheter, bradycardia began, which led to his return» to the hospital in Portimão, «where he would die following a cardiorespiratory arrest», reads the deliberation.

ERS recalls that the pediatric inter-hospital transport service in the region came into operation in March 2014, with CHUA assuming, in protocol, the responsibility of ensuring its permanent operation 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with a team of doctor and nurse integrated into the neonatal and/or pediatric intensive care unit.

Considering that there was a violation of the rules established in the protocol between the former CHUA and the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve, which aim to guarantee and conform users’ access to healthcare, the ERS also decided to proceed with an administrative offense process .

In addition to instructing the ULS of the Algarve to guarantee the permanent operability of pediatric intra-hospital transport, the regulatory entity wants the hospital center to guarantee, «permanently, that the procedures and/or standards are known to its professionals, thus achieving dissemination of quality standards of care, recommendations and good practices, with a view to training and informing the health professionals involved», concludes the deliberation.

At the time, a source from the Ministry of Health said that all “clinical and technical” resources were made available in this case and that transport failed due to the worsening of the baby’s condition, “incompatible with transport”.