The president of INEM, Luís Mendes Cabral, rejects the failure of the new triage system and justifies the case with a lack of “available ambulances”. He also guarantees that, despite the outcome, “INEM did its job”.
The president of INEM, Luís Mendes Cabral, reacted this Wednesday in a press conference to the case of the man who died on Tuesday after three hours waiting for help.
Mendes Cabral explains that the case was not due to a failure of the new triage system, but rather to a lack of resources, specifically a lack of ambulances available at that time.
The man in question died this Tuesday in Seixal after almost three hours waiting for help from INEM. The victim, aged 78, called INEM for help for the first time at 11:20 am on Tuesday, and this situation was classified as priority 3 – which foresees the activation of resources within 60 minutes. At 1:29 pm, there was a second call to INEM questioning the delay in resources and at 2:05 pm a third call indicating that the victim was in cardiorespiratory arrest. It was only at 2:09 pm that Almada’s medical vehicle was sent, which had since remained free.
INEM’s new triage system has been the target of criticism, with firefighters saying that, with the definition of times by priorities imposed by this new system (in force since January 2nd), patients are left waiting for an ambulance, despite there being resources available.
Following this case, the Left Bloc has already sent the Government, specifically to the Minister of Health, two questions asking for clarification on the situation, namely how to explain such a long delay and what measures Luís Montenegro’s executive is considering taking.
