Dr. Luís Mendes Cabral will assume the role of president of INEM on Tuesday, stepping in for military officer Sérgio Janeiro who has held the position since July 2024, announced the Ministry of Health today.
A source from the ministry informed Lusa that António de Eça Pinheiro was selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), with the two appointment orders taking effect from today.
“Luís Cabral and António de Eça Pinheiro will start their roles tomorrow, November 4, as president and board member of the National Institute of Medical Emergency, respectively,” stated the ministry led by Ana Paula Martins.
The competition for the presidency of INEM was initiated in January this year but was halted due to the scheduling of early elections in May, with Sérgio Janeiro continuing in the role, having been appointed in July 2024 under a 60-day substitution regime.
According to the Statute of Executive Staff, appointments to senior management positions cannot occur between the call for elections to the Assembly of the Republic and the parliamentary investiture of the new Government.
The process for selecting the new president of INEM started on January 6 and concluded on the 19th of the same month, after an initial competition that did not attract enough candidates.
A specialist in emergency and urgent medicine, Luís Mendes Cabral, 46, was previously the clinical director of the Regional Service of Civil Protection and Firefighters of the Azores, where he also served as a regulatory doctor and trainer.
He was part of the air evacuation team at the Hospital of the Divine Holy Spirit on Terceira Island, served as an anesthesiologist in several hospitals on the mainland and the Azores, and fulfilled the role of regional health secretary in the Socialist Government of the Azores from 2012 to 2016.
Previously, he worked as a doctor for INEM’s air transport service and as a regulatory doctor for the institute’s emergency patient guidance center (CODU).
António de Eça Pinheiro, who holds a degree in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology from the University of Arizona and the University of Connecticut, USA, has previously served as a board member of MM, Shared Management, and as a board member of several local health units.
Luís Cabral assumes the position at a time when INEM is undergoing transformation, with the Government announcing a review of its organic law following an evident lack of human resources for emergency services, highlighted by a strike of pre-hospital emergency technicians.
The contracting of the emergency air transport service was another complex process, as the company that won the public tender did not start 24-hour operations with four helicopters on July 1, as stipulated in the contract.
To prevent service interruption, INEM was forced to negotiate directly with the same company, which provided more limited means, counting also on the support of the Air Force.
