André Kosters / Lusa
INEM Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU)
The average waiting time for Urgent Patient Guidance Centers today is 19 seconds, indicated INEM, which adds that automatic sorting is already in operation. Number of cases under investigation rises to 10 after two deaths reported in Pombal.
“The average service times at Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU) now record, on average, 20 seconds of waiting. Today, November 9th, the average time is 19 seconds”, indicated INEM in a statement.
According to the institute, these times are the result of the contingency measures implemented, “with a view to optimizing the functioning of the INEM medical center”.
One of the measures implemented was a automatic answering mechanism“activated only when the CODU system is overloaded”.
Thus, “if the waiting time reaches three minutes, the call is answered immediately and the contactant will respond with YES or NO to the questions asked, allowing the seriousness of situations to be quickly and automatically prioritized”, explains the statement.
“Depending on the level of severityemergency resources will be activated or calls transferred to SNS 24”, he adds.
INEM also indicated that it has already reinforced daytime shifts and that nurses have been integrated into the CODU teams, and has also committed to “making every effort to improve service to citizens”.
These measures come after several criticisms and complaints about INEM’s supposed delays and failures, which will have caused the death of at least 10 people.
Two deaths reported in Pombal
The number of deaths associated with the Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians’ strike, the causes of which are being investigated, increased to 10 after the Pombal Volunteer Firefighters were called, on Monday, to two incidents that were not responded to. from INEM.
Two men, aged 53 and 90, ended up losing their lives in these incidents, revealed this Saturday the 2nd commander of the corporation, João Carlos. “In both calls contactants called the center of the Fire Department to request help, indicating that they would have already called 112 and that they would not have been attended to”
Speaking to Lusa, the person in charge explained that in both situations the Pombal Firefighters they made the rescue team come out and provided assistance to victims who were in cardiorespiratory arrest.
“Support was requested of the Urgent Patients Guidance Center, which provided a medical vehicle from Leiria Hospital and whose death was declared on site by the doctor from the Emergency and Resuscitation Medical Vehicle”, he added.
In both cases, which occurred in the localities of Crickets and Arnal“the two contactors gave the information that they had already called 911” and that, in both situations, “CODU would not have respondedexceeding the time that people thought was normal.”
“The only difference in the second situation is that the person who called the Fire Department was left with the feeling that the ambulance only left after they called a second time, but that is wrong: the ambulance was already on the way”, he clarified.
Contacted by Lusa, the president of the Union of Parishes of Santiago and São Simão de Litém and Albergaria dos Doze, to which the town of Arnal belongs, lamented the death of the elderly man and the fact that the emergency services “did not work”.
“From Pombal to Arnal it is about 20 minutes and from Arnal to Leiria half an hour. What I was told by a family member is that it took a long time for an INEM ambulance to arrive and they ended up calling the firefighters”, said Manuel Matos.
The General Inspectorate of Health Activities opened an investigation into cases of deaths reported in recent days due to alleged delays in INEM assistance.
