Minister says that increased child mortality is related to lack of investment by predecessors
The Minister of Health said, on Monday, that the increase in child mortality is more related to the investment of investment in the maternal and infiltile area in recent years than with the closure of urgencies of gynecology and obstetrics in 2024.
« No one can say today that it is not related, more than to the urgencies (closed), with the decrease in recent years, what has been the investment that we need to do, specifically, in the public system, in the maternal and child area, » said Ana Paula Martins, on the sidelines of the International Nurses Day commemorations, at the Trás-os-Montes hospital center and Alto Douro, in Vila Real.
At issue is the news, advanced by Correio da Manhã, which reports the 20% increase in the children’s mortality rate last year.
The ruler admitted that the closing of emergency services gynecology and obstetrics in 2024 is not a good solution. « Obviously, having urgencies that are closed or intermittent is not a good answer, having pediatric urgencies that are fragile is not a good answer either, » he said, stressing that it is « undisputed » to reinforce the « maternal and child health teams in the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, especially in the Setúbal Peninsula », where the data of child mortality.
“At the center of all this are two essential things: first, human resources, we have to mobilize more obstetricians to be in the NHS and we have to value our nurses in the maternal and child area,” he added
It should be noted that, according to IA data, in 2024, 118,374 deaths were recorded, 79 more than in 2023; of which 252 deaths were from children under one year, 42 more than in 2023; This translated into the increase in the child mortality rate to 3.0 deaths per 1,000 undead, when in 2023 it was 2.5.
