Masks and gowns made in Portugal do not reach the NHS

One in five infected with Covid-19 in Portugal is a doctor, according to the Order. In recent days, reports of lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) have grown at a pace comparable to that of those infected.

The companies that produce PPE and other medical material have doubled or tripled the production and the State will acquire all production for the National Health Service (SNS). But all the national production is not enough, “not even close, to supply the needs”, assured those who know the market.

“We are working on the three shifts to produce masks, with three people in each shift. In a company with 460 people, we can already see that it is not our main business”, explained to JN Luís Guimarães, administrator of Bastos Viegas, a company of Penafiel which is dedicated to the production of health equipment, from PPE to medical devices, for example. Increasing the production of masks would require additional machines, but the company was quoted in the press for being “exporting” at a time when material is lacking for the NHS. The administrator ensured that all orders for the NHS “have been fulfilled”. Until we lived in a pandemic scenario, most of the production was exported. In 2018, Portugal exported almost 288 million euros of medical and surgical instruments and materials and imported around 810 million euros. Since last Sunday, the export of PPE outside the EU has been banned without prior authorization from the Member State where it was produced.

accelerated acquisition

“The scarcity of PPE in the global market is known, given the exceptional situation that is experienced worldwide,” recalled a source from the Ministry of Health, who stressed that national companies have been committed to responding to needs.

“We are reinforcing the procedures for the necessary acquisitions and responding to the needs. In this sense, the SNS entities have been financially reinforced”, assured the same source, specifying that “the procedures for acquisitions in the national territory and outside the country are already taking place” “.

As for Bastos Viegas’ production, the same source assured that “it has been supplying to the NHS, both for the central strategic reserve and for different hospitals, and has already been informed that the NHS would acquire all of its production, keeping in mind the period of exception we live in. ” Thus, the figure of the civil requisition for the production of the industry in question will be out of the equation, since it is sold voluntarily by the companies.

lack of PPE

While new supplies do not reach hospitals, reports of material shortages for healthcare professionals continue to occur.

JN knows that Coimbra’s IPO professionals continue to treat patients without a mask and even in pharmacies they are unable to acquire them for personal use. Patients with cancer disease are often immunosuppressed and easily contract the virus that doctors, nurses, diagnostic technicians, operational, administrative or security assistants can inadvertently transmit.

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