Order considers it “unfortunate” not to have been heard in guidance on childbirth. DGS guarantees that it was involved from the beginning

The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) clarified this Saturday that five representatives of the Order of Doctors (OM) followed “from the beginning to the end of the work” the creation of guidance for health care during childbirth and validated the document.

The DGS statement comes a day after the Medical Association regretted not having been heard about guidance for health care during childbirth and announced that it would meet today urgently to define a position.

“As a normative technical entity, and as in the guidelines published so far, the DGS formed a working group with representatives of different entities, namely Professional Orders, and the respective Colleges of the specialties involved, as well as scientific societies”, he says.

According to the DGS, the Order of Doctors “appointed three representatives from the Colleges of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics and Gynecology, and Obstetrics”, and the College of Gynecology and Obstetrics “appointed two more specialists” along with the coordinator of the Follow-up Commission, the Professor Diogo Ayres de Campos.

“All appointed representatives and specialists produced and accompanied the document from the beginning to the end of the work”, he says, adding that the final document “was validated by all the elements” and that, only after validation, the guidance in question was published on the DGS website.

“The DGS has involved and will continue to involve representatives of professional bodies, scientific societies and other experts in the process of producing standards and guidelines, considering that this constitutes good practice and an added value for scientific rigor and facilitator of their adoption by health professionals,” he says.

On Friday, the Order of Doctors said, in a statement, that it became aware of the DGS guidance only through the media.

The institution led by Carlos Cortes criticized that the final report of the Commission for Monitoring the Response in Gynecology and Obstetrics and Delivery Blocks had not been previously sent to the Order for its technical pronunciation.

“It is absolutely regrettable that the OM was not consulted before the decision was taken, especially since this is an issue with an impact on health care and the safety of mothers and children”, underlined the president, quoted in the statement.

According to Carlos Cortes, the fact that the Ministry of Health and the DGS “have excluded the Order of Doctors from the final document is a flaw that is difficult to understand”.

“In view of this situation, the Permanent Commission of the Order of Doctors and the Gynecology and Obstetrics Specialty College will meet [este sábado]as a matter of urgency, to analyze this matter and define the next steps for action”, he added.

At issue is a guideline from the DGS on health care during labor, which provides that hospitalization, in low-risk situations, “can be carried out by an obstetrics and gynecology doctor or by a nurse specialist in health nursing maternal and obstetric (EEESMO)”.

“In eutocic deliveries [sem recurso a qualquer tipo de instrumento]the person responsible for the delivery will preferably be an EHESM, while in instrumented vaginal deliveries it will always be an obstetrics and gynecology doctor”, further clarifies the DGS document.

These procedures were proposed by the Commission for Monitoring the Response in Urgent Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Delivery Block, with the aim of standardizing hospital health care during labor and clarifying the role of the various health professionals. In 2022, several emergency obstetrics and gynecology services and the birth ward in various parts of the country had to close for certain periods or operated with limitations, due to the difficulty of hospitals in completing the service rosters of specialist doctors