Patients classified as urgent at the Matosinhos hospital waited in the early morning of this Friday, December 26, more than 12 hours for their first observation in general emergencies, according to data from the National Health Service (SNS) portal.
The information available at 08:30 indicated that Pedro Hispano Hospital, in Matosinhos, had seven patients classified as urgent (yellow bracelet) awaiting their first observation. There was also a user classified as very urgent (orange bracelet), who had to wait an average of around 12 hours, when the recommended time is 10 minutes after triage.
At Amadora-Sintra Hospital, where on Christmas Day the average waiting time for urgent patients exceeded 11 hours, today, the 10 users who were there waited almost four hours. There were still five people classified as very urgent and the time for first observation was 50 minutes.
Also at the Vila Franca de Xira hospital, the 12 users with a yellow bracelet (urgent) waited almost five hours for the first observation, almost the same waiting time as the emergency room at the Braga hospital (04:57). In Portimão, urgent users waited just over four hours.
Users classified as urgent had to wait longer at Hospital Espirito Santo, in Évora. The nine who were there at 08:30 had to wait almost seven hours for their first observation.
At Garcia de Orta (Almada), the waiting time for the first observation of users with a yellow bracelet was almost three hours, identical to the time it took for the 20 users with a yellow bracelet who were in the emergency room at Hospital do Barreiro.
At Santa Maria (Lisbon), the waiting time for urgent users was around two hours, the same at Beatriz-Ângelo, in Loures.
According to the triage system, very urgent situations (orange bracelet) are recommended to be attended to within 10 minutes of triage, while urgent cases (yellow) should not wait more than 60 minutes. For those that are less urgent (green bracelet), the recommended time is 120 minutes.
Health authorities appeal to the population, before going to an emergency room, to contact the SNS24 Line (808 24 24 24) to receive appropriate guidance.