Estela Silva / Lusa
The strike by pre-hospital emergency technicians that led to delays in answering the 112 line on Monday left more than a thousand calls unanswered. The government did not expect the “impact of the combination of two strikes”, but was aware of the start of the strike.
Delays in service from INEM’s Urgent Patient Guidance Center (CODU), which could have resulted in at least eight deathswill be investigated by the General Inspectorate of Health Activities.
The strike occurred simultaneously with another called by the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians, which only affected overtime and for which no minimum services were indicatednote or .
According to the union president, Rui Lázarowere less than 10 technicians answering emergency calls across the country. All day on Monday there were only 2510 requests for help were answered — the lowest number in more than a decade, highlights the newspaper. Emergency medical ambulances left 111 times, when the norm is to carry out 180 to 220 calls per day.
According to , INEM left more than a thousand unanswered calls during the strike period. The president of the institute, Sérgio Dias Janeirorecognizes that many people gave up contacting INEM due to “unacceptable” waiting times, which “reached one hour”.
Government caught by surprise
At the beginning of the week, the Minister of Health expressed surprise at the strike. “We weren’t really expecting that at this time pre-hospital emergency technicians refused to work overtime.”
The Secretary of State for Health, Cristina Vaz Tomé, denied the statements of the minister, recognizing that the Ministry of Health was aware of the strikes of pre-hospital emergency technicians, but admits that I didn’t expect the impact that they had in INEM’s response on Monday.
“Us we were aware of the strike notice. There have been strikes similar to this, the last one was in 2023. We did not expect the impact that results from combination of two strikes. We weren’t expecting the impact”, said the government official this Friday, in statements to journalists.
“The Government I didn’t expect the impact of the combination of two strikes”says the secretary of state, who regrets the deaths that occurred this week.
Cristina Vaz Tomé highlights that “no one knows if they would have happened if INEM’s help had arrived in time”, an opinion already expressed this Friday by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, who says that the deaths occurred because of INEM’s delay.
The deaths allegedly related to the lack of assistance from INEM have already led to opening of five investigations by the Public Ministry — in Bragança, Cacela Velha, Vendas Novas, Almada and Ansião. One of the cases was closed due to lack of evidence of crime.
The inquiry process focuses on “situations reported in recent days regarding possible delays in care provided by the Urgent Patient Guidance Center of the National Institute of Medical Emergency”, says IGAS in its response to Lusa.
Pedro Nuno holds prime minister responsible
The PS secretary general held the prime minister responsible for the crisis at INEM, warning that it is not a problem exclusive to the Minister of Health and demanding that political consequences be removed.
In a statement to journalists, Pedro Nuno Santos considered that the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, must draw political consequences of the crisis in recent days in medical emergency services, although he never demanded the resignation of the Minister of Health.
“A assessment of the minister’s continuity It doesn’t belong to the leader of the PS, it must be done by the Prime Minister”, stated the socialist leader.
Pedro Nuno Santos stressed that the responsibility for the crisis at INEM no longer lies solely with the Minister of Health as “also from the entire Government and the Prime Minister in particular.”
The Prime Minister “chose to devalue” the strike of emergency medical professionals, saying that noThey cannot always go after advance notice of strike instead of guaranteeing that the situation would be investigated and consequences drawn from it”.
“We are facing a very serious case of negligenceirresponsibility and incompetence on the part of the Government in managing the strike of medical emergency workers”, he maintained.
“We know today that the Government knew — and had known for a long time — that this strike, first, could occur, and, at least 10 days agothat the strike would take place. We also know that the Government did nothing to prevent the strikenor to mitigate the impacts of this strike”, says Pedro Nuno Santos.
“In fact, we know that one meeting was enough to prevent the strike from happening, as has now happened”, highlights the PS leader.
“Right away, no minimum services were decreed and, contrary to what I’ve heard, minimum services can also be decreed to strikes and overtime work”, noted Pedro Nuno Santos.
10 days are not 3000 days of inaction
This Friday, the Minister of the Presidency lamented the deaths due to an alleged lack of assistance from INEM and accused the PS of inaction and lack of investment at the emergency medical institute for eight years.
“Any deaths related to the actions of the State are to be deeply regretted and deserve evaluation and investigation and this investigation was ordered to understand the contours of each of them, so that we can analyze and decide accordingly”, he said Antônio Leitão Amaro.
The secretary of state, who was being heard in parliament as part of the discussion on the OE 2025 specialty, was responding to a question from the PS deputy Isabel Moreirawho noted that the Minister of Health would have done nothing to prevent the strike — once the union gave him 10 days to start negotiations.
“The deputy spoke of 10 days, 10 days are not 3 thousand days, nor 8 years of inaction”, said Leitão Amaro, referring to the eight years of government led by António Costa.
“When making a political assessment of the causes of the dramatic problems that INEM faces, the PS would need to have a little modesty“, stated Leitão Amaro, who accused the socialists of having the “responsibility of eight years of disinvestment, lack of human resources, devaluation of professionals, of ignorance of TEPH claims”.
“On the part of this Government, We don’t solve all problems in one daywe are taking measures”, added the government official.
Measures reduced average waiting time
Calls to Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU) are experiencing an average waiting time less than a minuteINEM announced this Friday, which attributed this improvement in response to recently implemented measures.
“The average CODU service times show significant improvements, after the implementation of contingency measures with a view to optimizing the functioning of the INEM medical center”, said the institute in a statement.
According to the institution, since 00:00 this Friday, the average time to answer calls to the emergency number is located at 17 seconds.
According to data made available by the institute, in relation to Thursday, the average time from 00:00 it was one minute and 11 secondssince 4:00 pm it was 52 seconds and, after 7:00 pm, the CODU started to answer calls forwarded by the 112 center in 37 seconds.
Despite this “positive evolution”, the INEM board of directors admits, according to the statement, that values “are not yet ideal”so that it will continue to make “every effort” to improve these indicators.
From the set of measures announced by INEM on Wednesday, the following day, the reinforcement of pre-hospital emergency technicians (TEPH) schedules was implemented during the day, to the detriment of the night shift.
On Thursday, it was still simplified the screening algorithm In the most serious and priority occurrences, TEPHs are allocated to man the mobile emergency psychological intervention units and pediatric inter-hospital transport ambulances to respond to CODU calls and nurses are integrated into the CODU teams to carry out certain functions.
Just this Friday, they began to be integrated into the service of CODU technicians who until now were in support services and elements operational coordination, the institute also advanced.
“INEM plans to implement, within a period of days, the automatic service mechanism that will be activated only in moments of overload of the CODU system, in which call answering exceeds three minutes”, the statement also states.
This mechanism will allow, in a “quick and automatic way”, to stratify the severity of situations and activate a priority for activating resources or, on the other hand, transferring the call to SNS 24, said INEM, which will monitor the impact of these measurements daily and adjust them according to the results achieved.
The institute also warns that the European emergency number 112 should be contacted only in emergency situationsto ensure that resources are available to those who really need them.
