Following delays in answering calls which allegedly caused the death of seven people, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro today admitted a “serious situation” at the National Institute of Medical Emergencies (INEM).
"First of all, let me tell you that we are not sure whether the deaths occurred due to INEM's lack of response capacity or the delay in answering calls, but the truth is that, at this moment, there is a situation that is a serious situation that requires strengthening INEM's response capacity", declared Luís Montenegro.
The Prime Minister assured that his Executive is “committed to being able to, very quickly, avoid the ongoing strike with pre-hospital emergency technicians”.
"There is even a meeting scheduled for a few hours from now, between the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, and the union of pre-hospital emergency technicians. My hope is that, from this point of view, the situation can be stabilised", he stressed.
“But we know that this is not enough because, when we started working seven months ago, INEM did not have the human resources needed to guarantee the regularity of its operations”, added Luís Montenegro.
On Wednesday, INEM announced contingency measures, in the creation of an emergency triage for calls with a wait of three or more minutes, to optimize the operation of urgent patient guidance centers (CODU).
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