Estela Silva / Lusa
Man had stroke symptoms, but had to wait 20 minutes for the ambulance to pick him up – 20 meters from the hospital.
This Tuesday, a middle -aged man was at the door of the Hospital of Espírito Santo, in Évora, when he had what is thought to have been a principle of stroke (stroke). Fell on the street, about 20 meters from the emergency service door.
It was 10:45 am. According to, it was the people who passed there who warned the hospital unit. But it denied help to the patient, saying that there would have to be a call to 112. The passers -by called.
The ambulance arrived 20 minutes later and took the patient to the urgency, right next to the place.
A, the president of the Portuguese Society of Emergency Medicine and Emergency, Adelina Pereira says that what is “protocol” is that, outside the hospital area, INEM has to be called.
“Outside the hospital perimeter, it is not the hospital that will get people, it is INEM. Even being at the door of the hospital. It has always been like this. ” He also guaranteed that hospitals do not have “their own means” to collect the person.
However, for the president of the Fire League, António Nunes, in this case “The protocol was blind to reality. ”
A, he says that “the protocol is indeed correct from the theoretical point of view”, but “it is also true that if someone goes to the hospital to say that even in front is a person lying on the floor, There is the general principle of assistance that must be done ”.
Says that This is not the first time this has happened: The League of Firefighters is aware of cases where patients really felt bad at the door of the emergency service, but had to call the 112. “This is another case of investigation, but that comes once again that Urgent sick orientation center works badly, ”he comments.
Carlos Pinto de Sá, mayor of Évora elected by CDU, has also stated that he intends to clarify the situation. “I will ask for clarification from the hospital. With the news that came out, it is necessary to make the complete determination of the situation, ”he said.
