Street birth: SNS24 admits 'human error'

This is yet another complicated case involving a pregnant woman in Portugal. On Monday morning, near the Carregado Parish Council in the municipality of Alenquer, in a residential and commercial area, a woman was having breakfast at a bakery when she began to feel pain and her waters broke. The birth took place right there, in the street. This happened after a family member contacted the SNS24 hotline requesting an ambulance and was told it would be best to drive to the hospital. They also reportedly tried calling 112, but without success.

The incident prompted Health Minister Ana Paula Martins to request the Inspectorate-General for Health Activities (IGAS) to open an investigation into the case. "The procedure has already been determined by the Inspector-General for Health Activities to investigate the facts relating to the assistance provided by the SNS 24 Line and the Urgent Patient Guidance Center (CODU) at the time of the incident, as well as the assistance provided by the Tagus Estuary Local Health Unit to the pregnant woman," the ministry said in a statement.

Furthermore, a preliminary investigation by the Ministry of Health's Shared Services (SPMS) revealed "human error." "After auditing the SNS 24 Line system, a call from a user to the SNS Pregnant Line option was recorded at 10:16 a.m. on August 11, 2025," the statement explains, adding that the call was answered within 17 seconds. "The triage process took approximately 4 minutes, and the user was referred to an Obstetric Emergency Department. At that time, and for the geographic coverage area, the healthcare provider available in the information system was Beatriz Ângelo Hospital – Loures," the statement reads.

According to a preliminary investigation requested by SPMS from the private operator of the SNS 24 Line, "there was a human error in the application of the triage algorithm and in the routing, leading to the call not being transferred to INEM - National Institute of Medical Emergency". Mother and baby were transported to the Hospital of Santarém, with the supervision of the VMER doctor, and are well.