Government sends INEM explanations about delay in transporting patient

The Ministry of Health forwarded any clarifications regarding the case of the patient who took more than five hours to be transported from Covilhã Hospital to Coimbra to the National Institute of Medical Emergencies (INEM).

“These clarifications have been provided by INEM”, stated the communications office of the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, who at the end of last year announced that she was taking over the direct dependence of INEM, following the controversies caused by the workers' strike.

The response sent to Lusa by the MS office leaves unclear what went wrong so that the 49-year-old patient with a head injury was transported by an Air Force helicopter that took more than five hours to transfer the patient from Covilhã Hospital to Coimbra University Hospitals.

The executive director of the National Health Service (SNS), Álvaro Almeida, also referred responsibility for transporting patients to INEM, stressing that “hospital transfers are not the responsibility of the executive management”.

In the same sense, the president of the union of pre-hospital emergency technicians, Rui Lázaro, defended that “those responsible have one face: it is the Government and INEM”, and that “INEM did not take into account the time of the competition” for the hiring of the emergency medical air service.

The public tender for the contracting of this service was awarded to the company Gulf Med Aviation Services Limited only at the end of March.

“The company had little more than a month. The Government and INEM should have started this competition a little earlier or a little later”, accused Rui Lazaro, reiterating that the Air Force helicopters should be relocated to the interior of the country, where he believes they are most needed.

Since the 1st of this month, the Air Force has been providing emergency medical transport with four helicopters that should operate 24 hours a day, but only one is currently able to fly at night, in a temporary operation until the company that won the tender has sufficient resources.

In addition to these four Air Force aircraft, Gulf Med ensures, through a direct adjustment until the contract comes into force, two Airbus helicopters, which are located at the Macedo de Cavaleiros and Loulé bases, but which will only operate during the day.

According to the Minister of Defense, the Air Force has aircraft at the service of INEM that are located in Beja, Montijo and Ovar.

Lusa contacted INEM on Sunday and is still waiting for a response.