Health Commission Examines Proposal to Ban Administrative Delays in Medical Care for Critically Ill Patients
The Health, Women's, Family, Social, and Disabled People's Affairs Commission at the People's Representatives Assembly has begun reviewing a bill aimed at prohibiting any administrative delays or obstacles to medical care for patients admitted in critical or urgent condition.
This bill, numbered 108 of 2025, amends Law No. 71 of August 21, 1991, related to public health establishments. The text provides, in a single article, for the obligation to ensure immediate medical care upon admission of a patient whose health condition puts their life or physical integrity at risk.
According to the project, clinical examination and treatment must begin without delay by medical or paramedical staff, regardless of the prior completion of administrative registration procedures. To remove any organizational obstacles, the proposal provides for the provisional registration of the patient based on an estimated identity or a temporary health identifier.
Complete administrative information must be regularized later, once the patient's condition is stabilized or in the presence of their legal representative. The text also requires health establishments to number and document each case of provisional registration, while guaranteeing the patient's right to care and medical follow-up, without discrimination or delay.
This legislative initiative is part of an approach aimed at strengthening the protection of the right to health and ensuring the primacy of medical urgency over any administrative consideration.
