Manuel Fernando Araújo / Lusa
The former leader of the PSD, Rui Rio, criticized this Saturday “the state that INEM has reached”, which he considered “revolting” and the result of a lack of rigor, and points to the need for there to be consequences “as soon as a failure occurs” . The leader of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santos, says what was lacking was competence and responsibility.
In a post this Saturday on his X-Twitter profile, Rui Rio criticized the functioning of INEM, which this week left more than 1000 calls unanswered — failures that will be linked to the lack of help.
In his publication, the former PSD leader points out that “complaints about the functioning of INEM they are not from now“, but considers that the state in which pre-hospital emergency services is found “passes the unacceptable” and “is revolting“.
“We civilized countries, that doesn’t exist, because there are consequencesas soon as a failure occurs”, says Rui Rio, in an apparent reference to the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins. “This is the result of our lack of rigor“, concludes the former president of the PSD.
At the beginning of the week, the Minister of Health was surprised with the strike, following which there is 10 deaths under investigation by the General Inspection of Health Activities.
“We weren’t really expecting that at this time pre-hospital emergency technicians refuse to work overtime”, said the minister, who will be able to do so in the current government.
Ana Paula Martins was, however, this Friday the Secretary of State for Health, Cristina Vaz Toméwhich recognized that the Ministry was aware of the strikes of pre-hospital emergency technicians, but I didn’t expect the impact impact of the strikes on INEM’s response.
“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.
Lack of competence and responsibility
Also the general secretary of the PS, Pedro Nuno Santosreiterated this Saturday, in a post on his X-Twitter profile, that the Government “was duly informed about the strike” and he had “20 days to negotiate with the union”.
“Today, there are 10 deaths that are being investigated. The excuse of structural problems inherited from the past cannot justify the government’s negligence and irresponsibility. Lack of competence and responsibility” to the executive, concludes the leader of the Socialist Party.
“If the government understands that INEM has weaknesses in its response, this assessment would impose that the government would be even more prudent and demanding in anticipating the impacts of the strike”, he adds.
The publication by Pedro Nuno Santos is accompanied by the sharing of news from the newspaper today, according to which the National Institute of Medical Emergency “did not define minimum services on the day that strikes caused chaos in the relief effort.”
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.
During the strike period, INEM left more than a thousand unanswered calls. Emergency medical ambulances left 111 times, when the norm is to carry out 180 to 220 services per day.
As Cavaco would say…
“Os INEM’s problems are not from this week or two or three years agoare from a long time ago”, he considered Adalberto Campos Fernandes in commentary this Saturday, on CNN Portugal. “These are governance problems, structure problems, resource problems, probably professional composition.”
A resignation of the Minister of Health will not solve INEM’s problems, considers the former ruler, who stresses that it is necessary to “isolate two types of responsibilities, which are different: operational responsibilities“, firstly, and the political responsibilities.
According to the former Minister of Health of António Costa, it is not good to do “politics that I would call political with this matter.”
The matter requires “high politics, or institutional politics”, because INEM’s problems, having not started last week, “in truth, the government, as Professor Cavaco Silva would say, six months have passed“.
However, one cannot “blame the previous government, which was already judged in elections, and which perhaps lost them in part because on health matters did not respond how I should have responded”, considers Adalberto Campos Fernandes.
“AD made Health, and well, aan area of great political motivationwith an Emergency Plan that is underway, and this probably helped his electoral victory. I would say that it is time for the Democratic Alliance to focus on makingin responding, not ignoring what is behind”, he concluded.
