The Local Health Unit of São José, in Lisbon, was forced by the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) to reinforce corpse identification procedures after two bodies were swapped in January, an error detected only by the families during the funeral. The regulator considered the situation of "special gravity," highlighting that the swap was not identified by any internal control, verification, or validation mechanism, nor by the mortuary technicians or the funeral agency representative, despite the existence of a formal double verification procedure. The ERS identified as causes a significant increase in deaths with overcrowding of the morgue and a high number of exits on a single day, which contributed to professional fatigue. The regulator determined the revision of internal procedures, the implementation of more robust double verification mechanisms, internal audits, and measures appropriate to the installed capacity of the mortuary. In the same deliberation, the ERS also issued an instruction to the ULS of Braga regarding a case of a compress left in the vaginal canal of a patient for about a month after childbirth.
Postal do Algarve09/09/26, 09:10
