The Minister of Health acknowledged this Friday, October 10th, constraints on Line SNS 24 and revealed that the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS) and Altice have already been asked to reinforce the service during the winter.
“What we asked SPMS and Altice, which is our operator of Line SNS 24, was that at least 27 local health units be reinforced for the winter, because we are aware of the constraints”said Ana Paula Martins in statements to journalists, on the sidelines of an event on mental health at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon.
According to a study by national and foreign researchers, around one million calls to the SNS 24 Line, used to filter emergency room visits, could go unanswered in winter, due to lack of resources.
Projections for the beginning of next year anticipate up to 900 thousand monthly call attempts, potentially leaving almost 300 thousand without telephone service in a single month.
“What we would like is, this year, to be able to expand to the 12 ULS where we do not yet have this process working, but that is not guaranteed at the moment”he stated.
The Minister of Health hopes that the reinforcement plan for the 27 ULS will take place this winter and has even admitted the use of artificial intelligence. “There is indeed a need for human reinforcements, it is true, but there is also a need to put artificial intelligence into the system, there is also a need to use other technologies that help the service to be faster, because when we call a line asking for help it is important that it does not take us too long to answer, the referral is done appropriately and then the activation is done appropriately, whatever the response”he revealed.
According to the Express3,00 professionals currently work on Line SNS 24, which responded to 4.3 million telephone calls between January and September this year. The Secretary of State for Health Management, Francisco Rocha Gonçalves, guaranteed in September that Line SNS 24 (was prepared to respond in winter and said that the operator would “adapt the technology” and “will do it with Artificial Intelligence”.