António Gandra D'Almeida highlighted to Lusa the efforts to prepare hospitals for winter, ensuring that the SNS and hospital units are taking measures to respond to the increased demand and to prevent emergencies from reaching “their limit”.

“Hospitals are preparing for winter. We all know that winter is always a very complex time when ULS [Local Health Units] reach their limits and we are trying to avoid this as much as possible. But we are going to have a bad winter, we have to work to try to meet or reduce this excess need for assistance”, he said.

The executive director also admitted the existence of “constraints on medical teams” in several regions of the country.

“Of course there are constraints on teams and professionals and that is why we try to attract, hire and provide better conditions so that we can provide an adequate response to the Portuguese population”.