Of the data consulted in 29 hospitals across the country, 21 were, at 6:30 pm, meeting average waiting times in accordance with what is recommended for urgent patients (a maximum of 60 minutes).
In Greater Lisbon, only the Amadora-Sintra hospital was above what is recommended, recording, at 6:30 pm, an average waiting time for urgent patients of four hours and 9 minutes, accounting for eight users with that classification waiting to be served.
Patients listed on the SNS portal as being on hold include those awaiting first care and those awaiting results of tests carried out aftercare.
The Beatriz Ângelo Hospital (43 minutes), in Loures, the Santa Maria Hospital (52 minutes), in Lisbon, the Garcia de Horta Hospital (no waiting time), in Almada, the São Francisco Xavier Hospital (46 minutes) and the pediatric hospital D. Estefânia (35 minutes) met the average time recommended by the Manchester system for urgent patients.
The hospitals of São João and Santo António, in Porto, and the hospitals of Matosinhos, Gaia and Póvoa de Varzim also recorded, at 6:30 pm, average waiting times below 60 minutes.
The hospitals of Beja (one hour and 16 minutes), Portimão (four hours and 51 minutes), Bragança (one hour and 17 minutes), Aveiro (one hour and one minute), Santarém (one hour and 33 minutes), Guimarães (two hours and 18 minutes) and Leiria (one hour and 16 minutes) were above the recommended time.
Hospitals in Coimbra (pediatric, University and Covões), Viseu, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Portalegre, Évora, Faro and Vila Real recorded average waiting times in line with recommendations (below 60 minutes).
The Manchester triage, which allows assessing the user's clinical risk and assigning a level of priority, includes five levels: emergent (red bracelet), very urgent (orange), urgent (yellow), slightly urgent (green) and non-urgent ( blue).
In cases with a yellow bracelet, the first service should not take more than 60 minutes, and in the case of a green bracelet, the recommendation is that it should not take longer than 120 minutes (two hours).