ULS São João
Sick with head trauma waited more than 5h to reach another hospital per helicopter. I had to go from Covilhã to Coimbra.
A person with a head was treated at the hospital Covilhã. Doctors decided to transport the patient to the neurosurgery service of the hospital Coimbra.
But the transport of this 49 -year -old man was a problem. O Air Force helicopter did not fit the heliport at the Covilhã Hospital; The patient was an ambulance to the aerodrome of White Castle; And then it went to Coimbra.
From the moment the transfer at the Covilhã Hospital was authorized, until the moment he entered the emergency room of the Hospital of Coimbra, they passed 5 hoursreports a.
This helicopter of air force It was or unique available Throughout the country at night, it reinforces.
If there was a helicopter from INEM functioning, the transfer would take – at most – 1h30m.
The process took place this Saturday. With six medical teams in the middle.
INEM that explains
The next day, the Executive Director of the National Health Service (SNS) He referred to INEM the responsibility for transporting this patient.
“This It is an issue that should put in INEM“ Álvaro Almeida In an interview with CNN.
The SNS executive director stressed that, like that happens in other countries, there are different levels of hospital care and that, in more complicated situations, there may be a need to transfer patients to more specialized hospitals.
Arguing that “any transfer should be done in the shortest possible space”, the executive director of the SNS denied any responsibility In this case, stressing that “hospital transfer is not the competence of the executive direction”.
Álvaro Almeida assured that the contract signed following the International Public Competition to hire INEM’s Emergency Medical Helicopter Service “It has nothing to do with the executive direction, it is not a competence of the executive direction.”
Already this Monday, the Ministry of Health left a short statement about the case, to: “Clarifications about the helicopters must be requested from INEM. ”
Also in statements to CNN, the president of the pre-hospital emergency technicians, Rui Lázaro, considered that “those responsible have a face: it is the government and the INEM“,“ Inhem, it did not inhale the time of the competition ”for hiring the emergency medical air service.
The public tender for hiring this service was awarded to the company Gulf Med Aviation Services Limited only at the end of March.
“The company had just over a month. The government and INEM should have started this contest a little sooner or a little later,” Rui Lazaro accused, reiterating that Air Force helicopters should be moved to the countryside, where they understand they do more missing.
