“I would ask: how can helicopters and planes used in so many parts of the world for medical emergencies not be suitable?” stated Nuno Melo during a parliamentary Defense committee meeting. The discussion centered on the Portuguese Air Force’s support for medical emergency transport, a temporary measure as Gulf Med, the service provider contracted to start operations on July 1st, was unable to begin.
The centrist official asserted that these aircraft “are not all used simultaneously and are employed according to patient needs, making them more than adequate.”
Addressing concerns over some Air Force helicopters being unable to land at hospital helipads due to size, Melo emphasized that “often the issue isn’t the helicopter,” but determining if it “can deliver patients swiftly for treatment,” an area the government is focusing on, he added.
Melo repeatedly advocated for collaboration between the public and private sectors, recalling a protocol with INEM established in 2003.
Highlighting occasional tender failures, Melo mentioned the government’s decision to engage the Air Force as an “alternative to the usual costly direct adjustment” and suggested this solution might be used again.
He noted that “not a single transport by the Portuguese Air Force has failed” since starting support with INEM, successfully completing all 11 activations.
When questioned by Chega, Livre, and PCP regarding mission costs, Melo did not specify figures, stating that the funding would come from the general state budget.
Pressed on whether funding would come from the Defense or Health Ministry budgets, Melo remarked that because the Portuguese Air Force “does not aim for profit, the service provision will surely be cheaper.”
The committee session was marked by intense exchanges between PS and government-supporting PSD and CDS-PP parties.
CDS-PP deputy João Almeida, who requested the hearing, was the first to accuse the socialists of “disrespecting” the Air Force with “exaggerations” and falsehoods.
He claimed that, according to Air Force Chief of Staff General Cartaxo Alves, recently heard by lawmakers behind closed doors, it is untrue that many branch aircraft cannot land on hospital helipads.
Social Democrat Bruno Vitorino echoed this, accusing the socialists of “using the Force for political battle.”
Nuno Melo accused PS of attempting to “belittle” the Air Force by “insinuating” the branch is “incapable” of fulfilling its mission, “somewhat cynically.”
Speaking for the socialist bench, Mariana Vieira da Silva reminded that no further direct adjustments were made because “when the Court of Auditors approved the last direct contract,” it warned the PSD/CDS-PP government “no more would be signed” because “only at the government’s discretion was it not opened for tender.”
Vieira da Silva expressed legitimate doubts about why a tender wasn’t launched in time and noted discrepancies between the minister’s statements and those of the Health Minister last year, who said the branch “was not in condition” to secure this transport.
“Now we have the worst of both worlds: a tender that ended, a direct adjustment on top of the tender, and the Air Force accumulating without replacing the direct adjustment,” she lamented.
