“Today [sexta-feira] started working on the SNS 24 line plus 112 nurses “, announced the Assistant Secretary of State and Health, Jamila Madeira, at the usual daily conference on the outbreak of covid-19. The service has been experiencing constraints in recent days due to” abnormal increase “that the” unique “epidemic situation has caused, he said. He also took the opportunity to announce that during this period of exception, the telephone line SNS 24 will become free.
Jamila Madeira said that it was possible to answer “1200 calls simultaneously” on the SNS 24 line. “And we are working to reach 2000 calls simultaneously”, he added.
To reinforce the response to covid-19, Jamila Madeira also said that “a new call center with over 100 professionals” will start operating this weekend. The Secretary of State took the opportunity to call on people to “seek information” in the new site created on covid-19, so that the SNS 24 line is not overloaded with calls for “clarification of doubts”.
“We are going to have a lot of patients”. Most will have “mild illness”, says DGS
The Director-General of Health, Graça Freitas, highlighted the measures that were approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers – including the closure of schools, bars and nightclubs -, which aim to reinforce “social distance”. “This distancing will only be carried out if we do not move from one place to another. The Portuguese are asked to change their routine in order to minimize contacts,” he appealed.
The Government’s measures to face this pandemic translate into “two things”, according to Graça Freitas. “With peace of mind that people protect themselves and others.”
“We are in an epidemic, we are going to have many patients. We are going to have patients who will need hospitalization, intensive care, but, fortunately, most will have a mild to moderate disease”, so they can be treated at home, Graça also said. Freitas, realizing that there are “about six thousand people in prophylactic isolation at home for the protection of third parties”. “These people have to refrain from receiving visits and restrict contacts as much as possible, but always following the instructions of the health authorities”.
Graça Freitas made a point of talking about “good news”. “There are more cases recovered, at least one, and there are patients who are convalescing at home right now, either from transmission chains in the North or from transmission chains in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley“.
Working group studies next treatment phases
Graça Freitas revealed that there is currently “a huge group of people working” to present this weekend to the Minister of Health the model to be applied for the next phase of treatment of inpatients. “Often, the convalescence of these patients is very long and can be done at home. The length of stay in a hospital may not correspond to the total time that person continues to be monitored from a clinical point of view. You can do part of your treatment, being discharged and being accompanied at home during their recovery period “, he explained.
The director-general of health also said that there is a survey of the parks of ventilation equipment installed in our country. Information that is also being gathered from the social, private and military sectors.
Currently in Portugal 112 confirmed cases and 11 transmission chains. However, DGS is unable to estimate, today, with precision how long these covid-19 transmission chains will last in our country. “You have to give us a few more days to be able to say if it will be two, five or seven months”, said Graça Freitas.
Bearing in mind that the World Health Organization said this Friday that the Europe is now the epicenter of the pandemic, will the National Health Service be able to respond to an eventual escalation ?. “The health system has to reinvent itself, it has to become resilient. This will be at the expense of an ability to adapt every day and work together”, he replied.
He recognizes that “everything we know, the usual governance paradigms of health institutions, may have to change from day to day”. “At the moment, it is not possible for a hospital, a clinic to work in isolation,” he said. “Whether on an outpatient basis, and I am including home, where most people will be staying, or in hospital, we will have to find ways to organize ourselves”.
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