A patient at the Hospital de Santa Luzia de Elvas (HSLE), which at the time was part of the Unidade Local de Saúde do Norte Alentejano (ULSNA), had her surgery to remove a pin and a screw from her femur postponed due to lack of "appropriate" material in September 2022. However, instead of being readmitted to the health unit to resume the procedure after 15 days, the ULSNA "removed the patient from the Surgery Waiting List (LIC) and, due to an oversight, did not re-register her".

The case was reported by the Entidade Reguladora da Saúde (ERS), which added that, in the complaint it had access to, "the complainant alleges that, in December 2019, his mother underwent a surgical intervention - 'proximal femur nailing' - following a fracture of the femoral neck".

"Subsequently, and given the patient's complaints of pain, 'it was found that there was screw extrusion', which is why a new surgical procedure was scheduled, this time to take place on 22 September 2022", it added.

However, since "the material to remove the pin, sent by the company, was not appropriate", the patient was discharged, with instructions to undergo a new surgery "within a maximum period of 15 days". It turns out that the "ULSNA removed the patient from the LIC and, due to an oversight, did not re-register her".

According to the ERS, the healthcare professionals responsible for the procedure "did not register the interruption of the surgery, but rather its completion, which led to the patient being automatically removed from the LIC". In addition, the woman was removed from the system "without being given any alternative (therapeutic, if it existed, or even her eventual referral to another NHS hospital unit)".

After "insisting", the patient underwent a new surgery at the HSLE on 27 July 2023, nine months later than expected. But there is more: during four of those nine months, the woman was not followed up in a consultation context, as she had been removed from the system and the waiting list.

"In this sense, by acting in the terms described above, the HSLE did not guarantee the patient's right to access, promptly and within a clinically acceptable time, the healthcare she needed, namely the surgery to remove the pin and the screw", determined the ERS, which issued an instruction to the unit to "ensure, at all times, that, in the provision of healthcare, the rights of patients are respected".

"To ensure, at all times, that those responsible for the units or services involved in surgical procedures ensure and guarantee the registration, in the hospital's information system, of surgical proposals, appointments, surgical and clinical reports, hospital discharges in which a surgical procedure has occurred with the use of an operating room, the conclusion of the procedures and other movements in the LIC", it also indicated.

Leia Também: Hospital 'esquece' de avisar família de morte de mulher. "Cama vazia" (Portuguese version)