The case of a pregnant woman who lost her baby due to an alleged lack of obstetricians to assist in the delivery at the Caldas da Rainha hospital put the country at risk of a structural and human capital crisis in obstetrics and gynecology services (but not only) in the National Health Service (SNS). The urgent care service, which will have to delay the care of the woman in urgent care, will be closed due to the urgency of two emergencies. What happened because of an opening of an investigation by the hospital, which reported the case to the Inspectorate-General for Health Activities, and put the focus on the lack of obstetrics and gynecologists in the SNS across the country — which, at this time, of June holidays, led to the closure of several emergency services across the country or requests to urgent patient orientation centers to refer users to other hospitals.

Several officials, not only politicians but also bodies such as the Independent Union of Doctors (SIM) and the Ordem dos Médicos (OM) — which, by the way, had already denounced this situation for a long time — warned of the rupture in the gynecology and obstetrics services. and anticipated the closure of services due to lack of human resources, if nothing is done. The president of the Association for the Rights of Women in Pregnancy and Childbirth, Sara do Vale, even said “it is sad that it had to get to this point [uma mulher perder o bebé] to face an urgent problem”. However, it is not only verified in the specialty of gynecology and obstetrics — two outlined a time contingency plan for the summer and time Analyze the payment of days and overtime, which very few consider, initiating a tender to hire doctors in this and other specialties . But he added that, unfortunately, we do not have “sufficient doctors trained in this area”. Is it really so?

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