Health Minister Will Remove the Algarve Health Unit's Chair Over Portimão A&E Deaths and Calls In Inspectors to Examine the Whole Emergency Service
Ana Paula Martins will dismiss the ULS do Algarve board chair, saying he was warned, and has ordered IGAS to inspect the whole Portimão A&E. Público says he got more than 70 warning emails. The regulator and prosecutors are also investigating.
The health minister, Ana Paula Martins, said on Monday evening that she will dismiss the chair of the board of the ULS do Algarve, the public health unit that runs the region's hospitals and health centres, after deaths linked to long waits at the accident and emergency (A&E) department of Portimão hospital. On the same day she signed an order for the health inspectorate to examine how the whole Portimão A&E works, not only the individual cases.
For people in the western Algarve, Portimão is the main public hospital. The minister herself said the service "is not working well, because if it were working well, cases like these would hardly occur", while adding that it is not yet known whether there is a causal link with the deaths.
Why the board chair is going
Speaking to CMTV, Ana Paula Martins said there were no conditions to keep in office "someone who has been at the ULS for more than two years, knows that these situations occur and was warned", Observador reported, citing Lusa. The chair is Tiago Botelho Martins da Silva, first appointed on 31 October 2024 and reappointed in October this year, according to Público.
The minister admitted she received a letter in July from an A&E director that warned the board about conditions in the service, yet still reappointed him. She quoted it as saying that "it is the rule that doctors rostered to the emergency department do not see or take on patients". She promised a new team with a mission letter focused on the A&E.
On Tuesday Público reported that the board chair allegedly received more than 70 emails from the Portimão A&E director, who was removed last week, warning of mounting problems, along with an alert report in which former heads of the service described the clinical risk of long waits as unacceptable.
Four inquiries now running
- IGAS inspection. The inspectorate's president, Carlos Carapeto, told Observador it will open an inspection of the A&E. This adds to its inquiry into the death of an 87-year-old man, opened last week.
- Health regulator. The Entidade Reguladora da Saúde (ERS) has opened an assessment of the reported deaths, Público reported.
- Prosecutors. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) confirmed criminal inquiries into the three deaths reported to it, one of which has already been closed.
- ULS do Algarve. The health unit has its own internal inquiries.
The minister said inquiries of this kind take several months to produce results, ECO reported, which is why she took a political decision now. She did not name a replacement. Separately, the Socialists (PS) have asked for an urgent parliamentary hearing with the minister.
The cases are an 87-year-old who died after waiting about 10 to 12 hours (our earlier report), a 94-year-old who waited about 24 hours, and a two-year-old girl who died in Faro after being taken first to Portimão. The ULS denies the child died for want of care (background here).
What it means for you
The standing SNS advice applies: for a non-urgent illness, call the SNS 24 line on 808 24 24 24 first, which can direct you to self-care, a same-day health centre appointment or A&E, according to the SNS. In a life-threatening emergency, call 112 and INEM, the national medical emergency service, will respond.
