COVID-19 In Portugal: Hospitals Under Extreme Pressure

Photo illustration (Daan Stevens / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The condition of the public health system in Portugal is in an alarming condition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because many hospitals in Portugal have run out of beds for the intensive care of COVID-19 patients.

"Our health system is in a situation of extreme stress. There is a limit and we are very close to it," Health Minister Marta Temido said.

Each hospital in Portugal can only accommodate a maximum of 672 COVID-19 patients in an emergency care unit. The Portuguese Ministry of Health has acknowledged that the capacity of hospital beds is not that much, far behind neighboring countries.

This fact is exacerbated by the number of people being treated in emergency care units which this week reached 647. Not to mention the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators which said the number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization was likely to increase sharply over the next week.

The most worrying conditions have even occurred in a hospital in Lisbon. Many of the patients from the city's public hospital have been transferred to other places, such as to a health unit in another city, Porto.

“We have treated patients beyond our capacity. And we are not the only hospital where this is happening. " said Daniel Ferro, director of the largest Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon.

Not only Santa Maria Hospital. Garcia de Orta Hospital also said the same thing. The owner of the hospital revealed that in his hospital there were no more beds for new COVID-19 patients.

So far Portugal has confirmed 539,416 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were 8,709 deaths.