Health minister to sack head of Algarve hospitals after deaths in Portimão A&E. The whole A&E will be inspected
The health minister, Ana Paula Martins, announced on 9 November that she will dismiss the chairman of the board of ULS do Algarve, Tiago Martins da Silva. ULS do Algarve runs the hospitals and health centres of the national health service, the SNS, in the Algarve, including Portimão hospital. “The A&E is not working as it should,” the minister said in an interview with CMTV. She said Tiago Martins da Silva had run the ULS for more than two years, knew that such cases happened and had been warned about them (Notícias ao Minuto).
The same day, the minister signed an order for an inspection of Portimão's entire A&E, not just the recent cases. The health inspectorate, IGAS, is already investigating the death of an 87-year-old man: on the night of 4 November he was found unconscious in the waiting room after waiting about 10 hours to see a doctor. In early October a 94-year-old man died there after going more than a day without being seen by a doctor. The minister admitted that it is not yet known whether these deaths were caused by the wait (Observador).
Over the weekend it also emerged that a two-year-old had died. The child was brought to Portimão while its children's A&E was closed, was treated there and then sent on to the hospital in Faro, where the child died. According to the minister, the child's heart had stopped at home, and doctors decided on medical grounds to transfer the child to Faro, which has a paediatric intensive care unit.
The minister said she had received a letter from the head of the A&E saying that doctors on duty in the hospital's departments “as a rule” do not see A&E patients or admit them to their wards. According to Observador, back in May the former head of the A&E, João Coucello, discussed the hospital's problems with the minister at a meeting at the ministry. The newspaper's sources set out the reasons: since summer 2025 about 10 contract doctors have left the A&E, the ULS management cut nurses' hours, and the hospital's departments are reluctant to take patients from the A&E (Observador).
If a life is in danger, call 112. In other cases, a nurse on the SNS 24 line — 808 24 24 24 — will tell you whether to go to A&E, see your health centre or wait.
