I begin this article with a declaration of interests: the case I am going to report happened to a family member and, in my opinion, shows well what those who seek the National Health Service (SNS) can face.
We have all heard, seen images and read more or less inflammatory statements about the difficulties that doctors, nurses and other staff who work in the NHS face on a daily basis. Just as we hear users saying that they do not have a family doctor (in November there were 1.5 million people in this situation) or that they have to go to the health center in the early hours of the morning to try to get an appointment.
Let’s move on to the case I mentioned at the beginning. Last Friday – one day after the general strike that the National Federation of Doctors joined to protest against a proposal to reform labor legislation that it considers “a profound setback for the National Health Service (SNS)” –, a family member woke up with body aches and a fever that were combined with allergic rhinitis that he has. Knowing the increase in flu cases and their severity, he decided to fulfill what those responsible for Health had been calling for so much and called the SNS24 Line.
He was seen quickly and after answering the questions asked, he was given two recommendations: to take Ben-u-ron for the fever and an appointment scheduled for the reference health center the following day – Saturday. In other words, the maxim “Call first, save lives” seemed to be working and, thus, managing to avoid overloaded hospital emergency rooms.
But – there is always a but – this scenario of everything working well fell apart when he received a call from the health center informing him that the appointment had been canceled because the doctor did not “show up” and there was no one else available. At the same time he was told that they would not schedule a new appointment for him, that he had to call the SNS24 Line.
Now, this situation is illegal since, as denounced in the most recent report from the Health Regulatory Authority (released by DN on the 5th), users “cannot be left without access to healthcare assistance”, as this “violates the Portuguese Constitution and the Charter of Users’ Rights and Duties”. The document also emphasizes that rescheduling the appointment “is the responsibility of the health unit”.
Furthermore, the doctor’s absence (only he and the health center will know the reasons) also raises questions. One of them is: why is there only one clinician working that day and, probably, a worker with no mandatory connection to the unit?
Therefore, when between December 1st and 7th, cases of acute respiratory infection represented 8.1% of the 128,602 hospital emergencies, a sick user – after a test found out that he had influenza A – was left with only one of two solutions: go to the emergency room and wait a dozen hours to be seen or stay at home with medication.
Conclusion: he self-medicated. And he didn’t join the DGS statistics which, for this example, should not be very reliable.
Executive editor of Diário de Notícias