In a statement, ULS Médio Tejo, which includes the hospitals of Abrantes, Tomar and Torres Novas, in the district of Santarém, indicates that the Immunoallergology service "has seen a significant increase in its healthcare activity in the last eleven months", which "has made it possible to reduce the time and the number of patients on the waiting list for a consultation by more than 75%".

The ULS emphasises that the "greatest boost to this recovery" "was seen in the last seven months, under the leadership of the new Head of Service", the doctor Marta Alves, "who took on the objective of clearing the waiting list and ensuring compliance with the Guaranteed Maximum Response Times of the National Health Service (SNS) in the very short term".

The note states that at the end of September, ULS Médio Tejo "had 1,004 patients on the waiting list for an Immunoallergology consultation", including adult and paediatric consultations and divided between referrals from primary healthcare and internal follow-up consultations in the hospital outpatient clinic.

In the "six-month period -- from October 2023 to 30 April 2024 --, almost a thousand consultations were carried out (989, in total)", indicates the ULS.

Also according to the ULS, after the "peak" of the waiting list for first consultations referred by primary healthcare was reached in August 2023, with 512 people waiting for a consultation in the speciality, in April 2024 the number of patients waiting for an Immunoallergology consultation was "five times lower, totalling 101 patients".

As for the average waiting times to access these consultations, "in May last year the waiting list stood at almost 18 months (526 days), having reached its peak in October, with 620 days of waiting".

"At the end of last month [April], the waiting times for an Immunoallergology consultation at ULS Médio Tejo reached a minimum of eleven months, 135 days -- a value very close to the objective of meeting the criterion of 120 consecutive days from the registration of the consultation request in the 'Consulta a Tempo e Horas' computer system, carried out by the primary healthcare assistant doctor", and "thus meeting the guaranteed maximum response times of the SNS", reads the statement.

Quoted in the note, the chairman of the Board of Directors of ULS Médio Tejo, Casimiro Ramos, emphasises that the reduction in the waiting time for Immunoallergology consultations by almost 80% "means that more patients are receiving the medical care they need more quickly and efficiently, having a positive impact on their health and quality of life".

Also quoted in the statement, the Head of the Immunoallergology Service highlights, on the other hand, the "significant increase in demand for first consultations, especially related to asthma pathology, affecting all age groups".

"In view of this scenario, it is crucial that we further optimise the efficiency of our consultation and ensure that all patients receive the necessary medical care quickly and efficiently", she stresses.

Immunoallergology is the medical speciality dedicated to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of allergic diseases and diseases that compromise the body's defences.

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