"The pressure that is happening in the emergency room [of Tondela] is very high, the service is not dimensioned for an increase in the number of cases", the social democrat mayor told the Lusa agency. The administration of the Viseu Dão Lafões Local Health Unit (ULSVDL) informed, at the end of Monday afternoon, that the pediatric emergency room will be closed to the outside every day during the night, between 8 pm and 9 am, starting on June 1.

Since March, it has been conditioned to the outside at night between Thursday and Sunday.

"The information we have is that, already during the weekend, due to the fact that the pediatric emergency room in Viseu was closed, there was an increase in the number of cases of children", which was not usual, said Carla Antunes Borges.

According to the mayor, this situation "complicates and puts pressure on the service that is provided" in the general emergency room of the Tondela hospital, "which is unable to respond" to this increase in cases.

Carla Antunes Borges said she understands that, in a situation of illness, "any parent wants their child to be treated as quickly as possible" and, having no response in Viseu, "of course they resort to the nearest public hospital and public emergency room, which is the one at the Tondela hospital".

"It is not a solution to direct people to Coimbra, to a pediatric emergency room. They have to find solutions so that children have an immediate response", she defended.

The mayor recalled that she has been warning for a long time "about the fact that the Tondela emergency rooms are not working properly".

"And now the situation is even worse", she stressed, adding that "at night, it is often the case that there is only one doctor there and the responses are not being given to the population as they should be".

Following the example of the mayor of Viseu, Carla Antunes Borges criticized the fact that the mayors were not informed of this decision by the administration of the ULSVDL, led by Nuno Duarte.

"We cannot understand that there is no contact with us, it is a total disrespect", she considered.

The administration of the ULSVDL justified, in a statement, that "in order to maximize the availability of pediatricians during the summer period, without preventing the legal right to enjoy holidays, it is important to limit the assistance activity of the Pediatric Emergency to daytime periods and to emergency situations at night".

According to the ULSVDL, the decision aims to "ensure availability for a continuous scale of support for the Internal Emergency Room and Delivery Block, thus avoiding further cascading assistance disruptions".

Leia Também: Viseu. Urgências pediátricas encerradas durante a noite a partir de junho (Portuguese version)