Since the beginning of December, Line SNS 24 has answered around 307 thousand calls, an increase of 17% compared to the same period last year, and the average waiting time was 10 minutes.
According to information sent by the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS), the busiest days coincided with the periods immediately after the holidays of December 1st and 8th, as well as last Monday.
In more than half (55%) of cases, people had acute respiratory problems, which have been the main reason for contact.
Regarding referrals resulting from the screenings carried out, 45.9% of people were referred to primary health care, where 56 thousand appointments were scheduled.
Of the users who contacted the line between December 1st and 17th, 39.8% were advised to go to the emergency room and 4.7% of cases were referred to INEM.
9.6% of users were advised to stay in self-care at home.
According to SPMS data, digital screening — recently made available on the SNS 24 App — has already made it possible to carry out more than 26 thousand assessments, representing 23% of all respiratory screenings carried out by the SNS 24 Line.
Between December 1st and 17th, the average waiting time was 10 minutes, with 65% of users being served within two minutes.
The Directorate-General for Health had revealed at the beginning of the week that demand for hospital emergencies from SNS 24 and INEM had increased in the first week of December, driven by the increase in cases of flu and respiratory infections, which reached levels higher than in previous seasons.
According to the Seasonal Health Response Report — Surveillance and Monitoring of the Directorate-General for Health released on Monday, there was an increase in the total number of hospital emergency episodes in the first week of the month, totaling 128,602, 1.7% more than in the previous week.
Data released by DGS already showed a 4% increase in services on the SNS24 Line.
Within the scope of the National Influenza Surveillance Program, epidemic influenza activity was reported with an increasing trend.