By November 2022, hospitals had performed 11.8 million consultations, of which 3.3 million were first consultations. Despite the evolution in relation to the same periods in previous years, and although the maximum recommended waiting time is five months, there are those who wait more than three years.
According to data available in the transparency area of the National Health Service (SNS) Portal, cited by Publicthe 11.8 million queries made in the first 11 months of 2022 are the highest figure for the same periods since 2013 and represent a 3.1% increase compared to the same period of 2021.
The 3.3 million first consultations made up to November represent an increase of 4.3% compared to the same period in 2021.
According to the rules, the Maximum Guaranteed Response Times (TMRG) for a first query classified as high priority is 30 days, for a priority query it is 60 days and for a normal priority query it is 150 days.
When querying the data, the Public verified that in cardiology of Hospital Sousa Martins, in Guarda, and in ophthalmology at Hospital de Portimão, there is an average of 1433 days and 1133 daysrespectively, for queries.
At Hospital de Évora, 930 days are expected for a general surgery – obesity consultation at Hospital de Évora and 931 days at Hospital Pediátrico de Coimbra for an ophthalmology consultation.
In hospitals in Lamego and Chaves, the average waiting time for a regular priority consultation in pulmonology exceeds 700 days.
Also in priority consultations there are average waiting times that are double or more than defined by law. A priority consultation Gastroenterology at Hospital de Santarém presents 409 days of waitinggynecology – fertility support at the Hospital de Leiria 251 days, neurosurgery at the Hospital de Santa Maria (Lisbon) 195 days and at the University Hospital of Coimbra 126 days.
In Vila Franca de Xira, there are 217 days of average waiting time for pediatrics and at Hospital de Loures there are 161 days and 118 days for a general consultation of psychiatry and child psychiatry, respectively.
In consultations very priority112 days are expected at Hospital de Leiria and Hospital Padre Américo 84 days for a gynecology appointmentThe. In the hospitals of Viseu 88 days and São João 70 days of waiting for orthopedics.
“In general, there are longer waiting times and more people waiting, despite the significant increase in the list of subscribers for surgery, which implies consultations”, said the secretary general of the Independent Doctors Union (SIM) .
Jorge Roque da Cunha speaks of an “eagerness to torture the numbers” related to waiting lists for consultations, with hospitals “mitigating the list by returning requests for consultations to health centers due to alleged insufficient clinical information”.
Xavier Barreto, president of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators, pointed out that, in the process of resuming activity, after a stop in the first months of 2020 due to the pandemic, hospitals “made a enormous effort to reformulate agendas and ensure more vacancies for first consultations, which remains until today”.
“In addition, there was also more additional query production than usual,” he reported.
As for waiting times, he considers that there are cases in which they reflect the lack of professionals, “because we don’t have the necessary conditions of attractiveness”.
“One of the main focuses of executive management is to drastically reduce the number of patients outside the maximum guaranteed response times and those who are over 270 days of waiting”, he said.
ZAP // 
