Amadora-Sintra Hospital reports nearly 11-hour emergency wait

Emergency patients at the Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca (Amadora-Sintra) faced waiting times of nearly 11 hours for their first medical observation on Wednesday morning. According to National Health Service (SNS) data, patients classified as urgent (yellow triage) had a recorded wait of 10 hours and 52 minutes as of 08:45.

Other hospitals in the Lisbon and Setúbal districts also reported significant delays. At Hospital Garcia de Orta, urgent patients waited 6 hours and 39 minutes, while at Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, the wait was 7 hours and 5 minutes. In contrast, major hospitals in the Porto region reported average waiting times of less than one hour.

Health Minister Ana Paula Martins acknowledged that waiting times in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo regions are often significantly higher than in the rest of the country. She warned that the coming weeks are expected to bring intense pressure to emergency departments, particularly at the Amadora-Sintra Hospital.