Doctors advocate for alerts on critical diagnoses in the NHS

The president of the Portuguese Medical Association (OM) defended this Tuesday the need for the National Health Service (SNS) to have alert systems for critical diagnoses that allow patients to be adequately informed of their clinical condition.

"It is absolutely essential that we be able to fully utilize information and communication systems, which can help doctors and other healthcare professionals, given the enormous pressure they are under, to adequately inform their patients," Carlos Cortes told Lusa.

The reaction of the president of the medical association comes after the Santo António Local Health Unit (ULSSA), in Porto, took seven months to inform the relatives of an 82-year-old man of the diagnosis of a tumor.

This situation, which took place between November 2023 and June 2024, was disclosed on Tuesday by the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS), which concluded that the hospital “did not fulfill its obligation” to ensure that the results of exams were communicated to the user.

According to Carlos Cortes, who has already requested more detailed information about this case, the ERS deliberations report reveals a "situation that the OM considers regrettable, which should not have happened, which is the fact that a cancer patient, in a critical condition, and his family only found out seven months after the diagnosis."

"This must remind us of the need for the NHS itself to have alert systems, warning systems, for critical diagnoses," argued the president, who believes there is currently "great pressure on hospitals, services, surgeries and consultations."

The ULSSA justified this seven-month “time lapse” between the diagnosis being made and its communication to the family by the fact that the outpatient consultation scheduled for December 7, 2023, did not take place, claiming that “there was no opportunity to communicate the result of the endoscopic resection of the prostate, which revealed primitive adenocarcinoma of the colon with invasion of the prostate”.

According to the decision, the patient's failure to attend the outpatient appointment was due to the fact that the elderly man was again admitted to the urology department , highlighting that "no other steps were taken to communicate the result of the diagnostic exam to the patient and/or his family members."

This case led the regulator to issue an instruction to ULSSA so that, among other points, it implements procedures to ensure that the results of any complementary diagnostic tests are delivered and/or communicated to users as quickly as possible, “especially when said results imply urgent need for healthcare”.

In its response to the ERS, the ULSSA stated that an alert system developed internally by the Local Clinical Computerization Commission was being tested to ensure that critical results, within the scope of the Pathological Anatomy Service's activity, are consulted in a timely manner by the medical team responsible for the patient.

ERS became aware of this case through a complaint made by the daughter of the user with dementia, who died in July 2024.