A new service to take emergency remedies to patients wherever they are, precluding trips to hospital casualty departments, is to be tested in Bragança from September.
The objective, explains tabloid Correio da Manhã, is to respond to calls from patients within a “maximum period of two hours”.
All patients will have to prove is that the situation is urgent, and the medication has been prescribed by a doctor.
The service – running from 9pm to 9am Monday-Saturday, and 24-hours on Sundays and Bank Holidays – will be run by the national association of pharmacies (ANF), with the backing of INEM and the Ministry of Health.
It will be free in as much as patients will only have to pay for the cost of the medication delivered.
Said a source for ANF: “ During the evenings Portuguese in situations of urgency will not have to travel as the medication will come to them whenever they need it, be they at home, in a hotel, or tourists”.
The project is due to run six months to a year. For now, the regional health authority is ‘defining’ which medicines will be included.
