Flu Surge Pushes Amadora-Sintra Hospital ER Wait Times to 12 Hours

Almost half a day – that is how long some residents of the densely populated Amadora–Sintra corridor waited this week before a doctor could even look at their urgent-care chart. The episode, while dramatic, is only the latest reminder that Portugal’s busiest emergency department is buckling under extraordinary pressure – a reality now colliding with winter illnesses, staff shortages and post-holiday accidents.

What you need to know at a glance

• Nearly 12-hour delays were logged in the green‐coded (less critical) area of Hospital Professor Fernando Fonseca.

• The queue formed overnight, catching many shift workers and parents with small children off-guard.

• Hospital management cites an "exceptional upsurge" of respiratory infections and trauma cases.

• National trade-union representatives blame chronic under-financing of the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS).

• The Ministry of Health has triggered a contingency protocol that frees up beds in neighbouring units and diverts non-urgent ambulances.

A bottleneck in Portugal’s fastest-growing suburb

Amadora–Sintra is home to about 600,000 inhabitants, more than Porto’s entire municipality, yet it relies on a single public hospital. When trains, factories and shopping-centre jobs let out in the late afternoon, people flock to emergency for everything from ankle sprains to fevers because the local primary-care slots have long been full. "By 20:30 the waiting room looked like an airport during a strike," recalls João Bento, a 34-year-old welder who spent the night on a plastic chair after twisting his knee at work.

Why the queue ballooned this week

Health authorities list three converging factors:

Respiratory viruses surged after Christmas family gatherings; paediatric cases doubled in 48 h.

The orthopaedic ward closed 14 beds for planned renovation, squeezing the discharge pipeline.

Four senior emergency physicians were on annual leave at the same time – permissible under labour law but hard to replace at short notice.

According to internal dashboards seen by Público last spring, the Amadora unit already handles over 500 emergency visits per day in peak flu season, roughly twice the volume recommended by the Portuguese Association of Emergency Medicine for a hospital of its size.

Toll on patients – and on staff already stretched thin

Nurses describe a race against the clock: "When triage stretches past six hours, people get dehydrated, glucose levels drop, agitated relatives argue with us – it is unsafe for everyone," says enfermeira-chefe Rita Marques, who coordinated the night shift. The hospital insists that red and orange triage cases (the life-threatening categories) were still seen "within clinically acceptable windows," but concedes that green and blue wristbands faced record-long waits.

Official reaction: extra beds, telephone triage, metro-line clinics

The Health Ministry’s regional administration (ARSLVT) activated a contingency plan comparable to the one used during the 2024 RSV surge:

• designating Santa Marta and Loures hospitals to receive non-critical ambulances for 72 h;

• authorising overtime for 25 additional nurses and 10 doctors;

• expanding the Saúde 24 telephone line with paediatricians to deter unnecessary trips.

Lisbon’s city hall, meanwhile, is fast-tracking a pilot of evening walk-in clinics near blue-line metro stations, an idea imported from Barcelona that could relieve central hospitals by next winter, if funding is secured in the 2026 state budget.

What this means for people living in Portugal

While Amadora–Sintra is the current flashpoint, similar bottlenecks have been reported in Braga, Faro and Coimbra. Experts urge residents to:

• keep a personal stock of common fever reducers and inhalers;

• book routine GP appointments early through the SNS 24 app;

• use private diagnostic centres for simple X-rays when financially possible, freeing public resources for severe trauma.

The bigger picture – can the SNS turn the tide?

Successive governments have poured €2.3 B into emergency infrastructure over the past decade, yet demand keeps outstripping supply. Demographers warn that Portugal’s ageing curve will add 1 M retirees by 2035, many living near Lisbon. Without a strategic shift toward community-based care and rigorous workforce planning, long lines could become the norm rather than the exception.

For now, the hospital says it expects waiting times to return to “between 3 and 5 hours” once the New Year’s spike subsides. Whether that promise holds beyond the holiday lull will depend on the same perennial variables: staffing, funding and the public’s confidence that the first stop for a cough or sprain does not always have to be the emergency room.