This Monday, Ana Paula Martins accepted the resignation of the president of the Board of Directors of ULS Amadora-Sintra, Carlos Sá, who made his position available. He was “an information failure that is considered serious”admitted the Minister of Health, referring to the case of pregnant woman who died after being sent homedespite having hypertension.
The minister said she regretted the death of the pregnant woman and her baby, who deserves “great consternation”and assured that he had not known before that the patient was referred to the National Health Service. “On Friday, when I went to the Budget debate, the information I got from ULS [unidade local de saúde] It was information given to all Portuguese people, through the media.”
The family of the pregnant woman who died at Amadora-Sintra Hospital guarantees that the 36-year-old woman had been accompanied since Julyand the hospital ended up confirming follow-up in primary health care, contradicting the minister’s initial version. Evidence from consultations (on July 14th and August 14th) and exams carried out at the Agualva-Cacém Health Center contradict the initial statements that there was no prior monitoring.
After consultations, the pregnant woman was referred to Amadora-Sintra Hospital as it was established that she had a high-risk pregnancy. At that health institution, she had her first hospital consultation on September 17th and the second on October 29th, already at 38 weeks of gestation. On October 29th, during his most recent consultation, he was detected slightly elevated hypertension, which led to the pregnant woman being referred to the emergency room. There, she underwent tests and was discharged with the recommendation of hospitalization at a later date (at 39 weeks of gestation).
One day after being discharged, the woman began to feel unwell at home and went into cardiorespiratory arrest. She was assisted by INEM and transported to Amadora-Sintra Hospital.
Ana Paula Martins considers that “it is not the responsibility of the Minister of Health to comment on the clinical situation” of the pregnant woman, but thus confirmed the lack of communication between the services and the information provided by the health authorities.
In Parliament, the minister declared that the woman “had no follow-up until the date she entered” the hospital, when she arrived in irreversible cardiorespiratory arrest, in the early hours of Friday.
On Sunday, the president of the Board of Directors of ULS Amadora-Sintra informed the government official that “some of the information given was incomplete”. This was not complete information, because that pregnant woman had, in fact, had surveillance consultations at primary health care level.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, the president of the Board of Directors of Amadora-Sintra assures that “os factual elements transmitted” to the Minister of Health, and subsequently reproduced in the parliamentary hearing, “fully corresponded to the information that the President of the Board of Directors had at the time of his communication”. Later, additional information became known, namely by Carlos Sá, chairman of the Board of Directors, who understood that “Political and public responsibility” is “personal and non-delegable”.
The Amadora-Sintra Hospital, the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) and the Health Regulatory Entity (ERS) had already announced the opening of independent investigations to investigate the circumstances of the death of the pregnant woman and the newborn, as well as possible failures in clinical monitoring and coordination between the different health authorities.