The General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) has confirmed at least one death linked to a delay in emergency response during the strike by pre-hospital emergency technicians of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) at the end of last year. The deceased was a 53-year-old man living in Pombal municipality who suffered an acute myocardial infarction.
The IGAS document, accessed by a weekly publication, states that “the death could have been avoided had there been prompt emergency assistance within a minimal and reasonable time frame.”
Notícias ao Minuto has contacted IGAS for further clarification on the matter, but has yet to receive a response.
Alongside this investigation, IGAS completed two other inquiries involving the deaths of a 77-year-old man in the Algarve and an 86-year-old woman in the Alentejo, both associated with the INEM strike. However, in these two cases, causality related to the delay in aid was not established.
The Inspector-General of Health revealed to the same journal that the remaining inquiries are expected to be completed by the end of July.
A report released Wednesday by IGAS also concluded that more than half of the 7,326 calls made to INEM on November 4, 2024, the day when the technicians’ strike most significantly impacted the institute’s operations, were abandoned.
On that day, with an average waiting time to call abandonment of 8.45 to 9.41 minutes respectively during the morning and afternoon shifts, due to line congestion, “a call abandonment rate exceeding 50% was observed from approximately 09:30, persisting until the end of the day,” the report states.
These findings were uncovered in the inspection requested by Health Minister Ana Paula Martins to evaluate the impact of the strikes in late October and early November 2024 on the response capacity of INEM’s Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU).
The strike by pre-hospital emergency technicians (TEPH) against overtime commenced on October 30 for an indefinite period, coinciding with the general public administration strike called for November 4, which IGAS considered caused the “greatest disruption in CODU activities.”
According to IGAS, out of the total 7,326 calls, 2,510 were answered and 4,816 were abandoned (unanswered) on November 4, 2024, while on the same day the previous year, the abandonment rate was only 4%.
“The data shows that on November 4, 2024, during almost the entire morning shift and the entire afternoon shift, the majority of calls received were abandoned by people calling 112 for health reasons,” the document highlights.
According to IGAS, that day saw the lowest number of TEPH attending to calls in the CODU while simultaneously receiving the highest number of calls, totaling 7,326 contacts.
The report indicates that nearly double the number of calls were received in the CODU, registering an increased workload of 130.8 calls per operator during the morning shift, compared to just 41.4 calls per operator in the same shift in 2023.
IGAS is currently conducting an inquiry to determine the relationship between 11 deaths and alleged delays in CODU assistance during the strike periods. This month, it announced the closure of an inquiry into the death of a man in Vila Real de Santo António, after concluding that “given the medical examinations conducted, the victim’s condition was irreversible and the fatal outcome inevitable.”
