“Firefighters are legitimately awaiting the payment they are owed. (…) To date, the Ministries of Finance and Public Administration have neither responded nor provided the essential financial resources to [INEM] to resolve this situation,” the workers state in a communiqué.
The reaction from the INEM workers’ committee follows a statement made today by the Portuguese Firefighters League, protesting against the delays in payments by the Ministry of Health for ambulance services.
The Portuguese Firefighters League has demanded that the Government settle the debts from the pre-hospital emergency service by Wednesday. Failure to do so will result in corporations refusing to use the INEM-assigned ambulances next Friday, July 25, which would incur additional costs to the state.
“The Ministry of Health, particularly INEM, is behind on payments for services rendered by the firefighting bodies in the context of pre-hospital emergencies, causing significant difficulties for humanitarian associations. Despite INEM’s intentions to make these payments, it hasn’t happened,” said league president António Nunes.
The INEM workers’ committee blames the Government for not releasing management balances or increasing the budget to resolve the “current impasse,” emphasizing that the institute “cannot—and should not—be used as a political weapon or scapegoat to justify future structural changes or funding model alterations.”
According to the Portuguese Firefighters League, if the Government fails to settle the outstanding payments, firefighters will provide assistance with their own ambulances.
According to António Nunes, this option will not harm the population because the humanitarian associations have enough ambulances of their own to handle pre-hospital emergencies.
“Costs are always borne by INEM,” he noted, highlighting that each state vehicle deployment incurs a cost of 21 euros to be paid to the firefighting body, while using the associations’ ambulances involves an expense of 45 euros per service.
