"If for any reason a service is not able to give a full response, there is always another service, which will do it," said Manuel Pizarro in response to João Varandas Fernandes.

The director of the service, João Varandas Fernandes, said on Sunday that "if solid and consensual basic solutions are not found" there will be "serious risks of collapse during this summer period", highlighting the increase in influx to emergencies of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central (CHULC) with the closure of other emergencies and inpatient units.

Manuel Pizarro said that the official "drew attention to a problem that is, at the same time, a virtue of the SNS" and that the Ministry will "take stock of the seasonal winter plan" and begin to prepare "for the times that are to come".

The official also admitted to reviewing the night closure of the pediatric emergency of Torres Vedras, after "monitoring" and "evaluating" the results of the strategy of reorganisation of the pediatric emergency services in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region.

"If this is the case, we review the decisions," said Manuel Pizarro, noting that "Portugal has a chronic problem of excessive influx to emergencies," not because of the fault of the users but, "probably, because they do not find anywhere that is more accessible."

The strategy of reorganising the emergency services of Pediatrics in the Region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley which determined that none of the 14 emergency services closes, but the night service in Torres Vedras and Loures closes at the weekend.

Manuel Pizarro was speaking in Torres Vedras where he attended the presentation of the Portuguese Emergency Medical Team (PT-EMT) of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM).

The mechanism that allows a response to national and international situations of catastrophe or serious accidents is conducting in Tores Vedras, with a training course of more than 30 professionals and has the capacity to respond for 14 days to about a hundred people per day in an outpatient clinic.