Patients classified as urgent at the Amadora-Sintra hospital face waiting times of more than 14 hours for the first observation on the morning of this Wednesday, December 10, according to data from the SNS portal.
According to information consulted by Lusa, at around 8:00 am, 34 patients who were awarded the yellow bracelet (urgent) at Hospital Prof. Doctor Fernando da Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra) had to wait 14 hours and 45 minutes for a first observation.
There were still 16 non-urgent patients (green bracelet) waiting, after screening, 16 hours and three minutes to be seen by a doctor.
At Hospital Santa Maria, in Lisbon, 12 urgent patients faced a waiting time of six hours and 43 minutes for the first observation.
The two patients considered very urgent (orange bracelet) had to wait six hours and six minutes.
At Hospital São José, also in Lisbon, the wait was shorter, with the three urgent patients facing just 56 minutes of waiting.
At Garcia de Orta Hospital, in Almada, the wait for the 46 urgent patients exceeded nine hours.
At Hospital Beatriz Ângelo, in Loures, the SNS portal indicated that, at 8:00 am, 34 urgent patients were waiting nine hours and 55 minutes for their first observation. There were no patients with orange bracelets waiting.
By comparison, in the North, at Hospital São João, in Porto, the 19 patients with yellow bracelets waited three hours and 20 minutes.
According to the triage system, very urgent situations (orange bracelet) are recommended for assistance within 10 minutes following triage, while urgent cases (yellow) require 60 minutes and less urgent cases (green) require 120 minutes.
Health authorities appeal to users, before going to the hospital emergency room, to contact the National Health Service Contact Center – SNS24 (808242424) by telephone, in order to avoid unnecessary trips to the emergency room.