The death of a patient, which allegedly occurred due to a lack of adequate assistance from the team of professionals on duty, led the management of the health unit to decide to suspend the technicians involved. A commission of inquiry was established to investigate the facts within 15 days
Those responsible for the institution became aware of the incident through a video circulated on social media, through which they immediately opened a process to verify the facts, which allowed them to determine that the alleged negligence occurred on December 17, 2023, in Emergency Bank. Meanwhile, the management of Hospital do Prenda, which says it is surprised and dismayed, confessed to having only realized the facts last Sunday, the 7th, when it came into contact with the multimedia content, which portrays the fainting and subsequent death of a patient at that institution.
According to a note from that hospital to which the newspaper OPAÍS had access, the aforementioned video shows signs of possible medical negligence by the team on duty. However, the document adds, the reasons that would have led professionals to choose not to report the occurrence during the shift change meeting remain to be understood. A fact that, he explains, translates into serious disobedience to current protocols, leading to disciplinary action.
“The General Management of Hospital do Prenda decided to initiate a disciplinary process against the entire service team that worked at the emergency bank on the aforementioned December 17, 2023”, reads the measure in the note which also determines that, while the process, “team members are suspended”. The decisions, according to the document, were taken within the scope of zero tolerance for professionals involved in acts of dehumanized treatment of users, in hospitals, in compliance with the declaration of the Ministry of Health, in September 2023.
Finally, the management of the aforementioned health unit lamented the death of the citizen, in the circumstances in which it occurred, and extended its deepest condolences to the bereaved family, reaffirming its firm commitment to good standards of humanized care for its users. This is the third case in which a medical team has been suspended from activities at a hospital unit in Luanda, due to practices considered negligent.
In September 2023, a medical team at Hospital Américo Boavida was suspended, following the death of a 25-year-old young man at the door of that hospital unit due to “alleged medical negligence”. Two months later, the General Hospital of Luanda suspended a doctor accused of attacking a patient’s father, who was admitted to emergency services in critical condition, having died due to alleged negligence by the medical team.