INEM’s Faro and Quarteira 3 ambulances, the closest to the facilities that the Minister of Health will inaugurate today, will be stopped 76% and 78% of the time in May, respectively, according to pre-hospital emergency technicians.
In a statement, the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH), which carried out a survey of the inoperability rate of ambulances from the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) for the month of May, highlights that more than half have “periods of high inoperability”.
From the survey carried out, STEPH concludes that 20 ambulances were more than 50% inoperable during the month of May and that there are ambulances that “have not opened for several months due to a lack of technicians”.
In the case of ambulances in Faro and Quarteira 3, the inoperability rates are mainly due to the lack of technicians, according to STEPH.
These are the two ambulances closest to the new INEM Algarve facilities that the Minister of Health will inaugurate today, which represent an investment of 1.8 million euros.
In the note released today, STEPH recalls that more than half of INEM’s ambulances “have long periods of inoperability” and that, in May, they will all be stopped for some period of time, in most cases due to lack of human resources.
According to the union, according to INEM’s activity plan, there should be 1,480 pre-hospital emergency technicians, but there are just over 800.
Recalling the Rally de Portugal, which runs until Sunday, STEPH recalls that “at the same time that INEM has committed 13 vehicles” to this “sporting and private event”, “Portuguese citizens are deprived of access to health care medical emergency, including in areas where the event is taking place.
“The scenario gets worse with each passing day”, insists the union, adding: “If in the past the constraints were minor, occurring only in the two largest metropolitan areas, today they have spread much more significantly throughout the country, limiting the citizens’ access to effective emergency medical care.”
STEPH also says that it has already started a series of steps with the Assembly of the Republic and the Government where it will explain these and other “constraints that emergency medical services face”, in an attempt to achieve “effective and immediate solutions”.
In the survey carried out by the union, there are several medical emergency ambulances from INEM in Lisbon that will be inoperative for more than 80% of the time in May.
On April 25th, STEPH had warned that 28 INEM ambulances were stopped on that festive day, due to a lack of technicians.
“The day on which 50 years of democracy and freedom are celebrated is also a black day for INEM: 28 ambulances are closed due to a lack of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians. There are thousands of Portuguese people without access to timely and differentiated emergency medical care because INEM is unable to fulfill its mission today”, stated the union at the time.
In a statement, STEPH considered that the shortage of technicians is due, above all, “to the poor management that has prevailed at INEM over the last few years”, blaming “retrograde, conservative and ineffective policies that keep more and more professionals away from the institute” .
At the time, in response to STEPH, INEM maintained that the “Integrated Medical Emergency System works as a network, in a logic of complementarity, being made up of more than 600 pre-hospital emergency resources, from INEM and partners firefighters and Red Cross Portuguese, which provide an adequate response to needs”.
Lusa
