The bureaucracy and inefficiency in Portugal is killing 42 children per year

Recently, my baby had a fever. I was communicating with my private doctor about what medicine he should take.

Over time his fever increased to a dangerous level and she advised I take him to hospital. I took him to my nearest hospital which was a public hospital. The man at reception said he wouldn’t take any details from me, or even triage my son until I called public health care (SNS) to get a referral.

It didn’t matter that I had been sent there by a private doctor in Portugal. I had to speak to SNS. I called this number and after being on hold for over half an hour, someone answered.

When you call it gives you the option of speaking to someone in English, which I selected. But the person who answered didn’t speak English, and wasn’t happy enough with my broken Portuguese. They said someone would call back. No one did.

I got a Portuguese friend to call, but they wouldn’t speak to her. About 90 minutes into this ordeal my son started to lose consciousness.

The man at reception didn’t care.

I called 112 as I now deemed it a serious emergency, but they just hung up on me since I was already at the hospital, so it wasn’t their problem.

I asked the man at the reception if this new process was so important he would be willing to watch my son die. He said yes.

The whole time I was there, I didn’t see anyone successfully contact SNS. Mothers were stressed out crying, cradling their sick children unable to get help, despite there being a number of paediatric health professionals just down the hall.

I was with a friend from one of the poorest countries in the world, and even she had never seen anything like this before.

I could understand if we weren’t being seen because there were other children who were sicker being prioritized, but they weren’t seeing the sicker kids either. Care was based purely on whoever was lucky enough to get through to SNS.

I had no choice but to drive my son to a private hospital, which during rush hour took another 40 minutes.

Thankfully I was able to eventually get the care my son needed, and he’s ok now. But it got me thinking, if things were more serious, he would have died for no other reason than because someone decided to create a bureaucratic process for urgent care.

I looked into it once this ordeal was over and apparently this new rule introduced in 2024 only applies to paediatrics and obstetrics. So just children and women, mostly pregnant women.

Not only did they introduce this additional step to receiving emergency care for the most vulnerable, but they also didn’t adequately staff SNS with enough people who can answer these influx of calls.

Since the introduction of this additional step, there has been a 20% increase in infant mortality. That accounts for ~42 infant deaths in one year!

The bureaucracy and inefficiency in Portugal is now starting to kill our children. Whoever decided on this particular policy has blood on their hands.