The Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) has challenged claims made by the Inspectorate-General for Health Activities (IGAS) regarding an incident during a medical emergency response on November 4, 2024, coinciding with a strike at the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM). The union, which is providing legal support to the health professional involved, argues that IGAS’s report is based on “falsehoods and distortions of the reality” of the situation.
The union emphasized that the technician at the center of the allegations faced issues such as an incorrect address, an inability to contact those who requested assistance, and a lack of knowledge about the exact location of the victim. The victim, a man, was being transported to the hospital by a family member’s vehicle.
STEPH demands an “immediate retraction” of IGAS’s statements and a “complete correction of the truth regarding the events and the conditions under which the TEPH performed her duties.” They insist that if necessary, they will take all possible actions to defend the professionalism of their member.
The union explained that the medical technician acted “in strict compliance with applicable rules and protocols, in collaboration with the medical professionals on duty.” Once the exact location of the user was determined, available resources were dispatched, although not the closest, and actions were taken in line with the applicable protocols.
“The TEPH involved is not responsible for the delay in attending the call, the incorrect address information, or the inability to contact the involved parties, nor for the lack of available emergency response resources,” the union stated.
This incident dates back to November 4, 2024, when dual strikes were underway, and a 53-year-old man died of a myocardial infarction while awaiting emergency support. IGAS’s investigation linked the death to the delay in assistance and pointed to the conduct of a pre-hospital emergency technician and a doctor at the Coimbra Urgent Patient Orientation Center (CODU).
In their statement, STEPH argued that INEM is responsible for the chaos in call handling at CODU that day, due to the inadequate management of the concurrent strikes, which IGAS’s report also concluded.
The report, released on Wednesday, was requested by Health Minister Ana Paula Martins to assess the impact of strikes at the end of October and start of November 2024 on CODU’s response capability. It found that more than half of the 7,326 calls made to INEM on the strike’s most impactful day were abandoned.
The strike by TEPH personnel against working overtime began on October 30 and coincided with a general public administration strike on November 4, noted as causing significant disruption to CODU operations.
The inspection found that on November 4, 2024, only 2,510 out of 7,326 calls were answered, with 4,816 abandoned—a sharp increase from the 4% abandonment rate on the same day the previous year.
It also noted that minimum services for the strikes on October 31 and November 4 were neither contested nor negotiated by INEM with the unions, as the institute did not receive timely strike notifications.
STEPH described IGAS’s report as “unacceptable,” accusing it of creating a misleading public narrative “for apparent political convenience” and using a TEPH as a scapegoat for the “disastrous management” of the strikes, damaging the reputation and professionalism of the health worker and the entire profession.
