“I have already read the report, as obviously it is a priority to read a report of such importance. At the moment, I will not comment on the report. In fact, I couldn’t comment beyond the note that the Inspector-General of Health Activities released to the press. Everything is written there, what are essentially the conclusions of the report,” explained Ana Paula Martins.
The minister was speaking to journalists at the end of a Reflection Workshop on Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services by the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), which lasted about six hours, at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ISCSP-UL).
“It is naturally up to me to look at what the recommendations are, to look at the conclusions and, together with INEM, with INEM’s president [Sérgio Janeiro], to whom the recommendation is addressed, to evaluate what INEM intends to do. Regarding the report — with all transparency — I will not say more than this,” she emphasized.
The Inspectorate General of Health Activities (IGAS) concluded that the death of a man in Mogadouro, Bragança, during the INEM strike, may be related to the delay in attendance by the Urgent Patients Guidance Center (CODU).
Today, INEM president Sérgio Janeiro announced that the physician involved in the response to the elderly man in Mogadouro, during the INEM technicians’ strike, will face a disciplinary process.
“In this particular case, a disciplinary process was opened, which was proposed by the IGAS [Inspectorate General of Health Activities], but it remains very important to remember — as I have previously stated — that the opening of these procedures are by no means presumptions of guilt,” Sérgio Janeiro told journalists.
The IGAS announced on Thursday the conclusion of the inquiry into the death of the 82-year-old man on November 2, 2024, having found “disciplinary indication in the action of a regulatory doctor of the Urgent Patients Guidance Center (CODU) in Porto.”
According to IGAS, the doctor did not act “diligently and zealously at the time of the deployment of differentiated medical emergency resources, particularly the Emergency and Resuscitation Medical Vehicle,” for transport between the emergencies of Mogadouro and the Hospital of Bragança.
The Inspectorate General of Health Activities (IGAS) concluded that the death of a man in Mogadouro, Bragança, during the INEM strike, may be related to the delay in attendance by the Urgent Patients Guidance Center (CODU).
Lusa | 18:07 – 25/09/2025
Ana Paula Martins added that “for 17 months” she has “been taking on responsibilities and reforming INEM.”
“I will not stop doing so until this mission of reforming INEM is completed. We have confidence in the teams working in our services. INEM is an institute that has technical and administrative autonomy and has its teams, makes its contracts, regulates internally what is also the relationship with its professionals. It is not up to the Minister of Health to question what is the competence of the doctors working at INEM,” she stated.
The minister recalled that when she took office, she requested an audit from IGAS because she knew that INEM “had many difficulties.”
“It was the first audit that was requested. Then, when the appointment of the CTI, presided over by retired magistrate Leonor Furtado, was made, an inspection was requested from the General Inspectorate of Finance. This was the path we decided to follow. We could have decided to do it differently,” she considered.
IGAS has already concluded the 12 inquiries related to the deaths recorded during the INEM technicians’ strike on overtime, which started on October 30 and was suspended on November 7.
Of the 12 investigations, IGAS concluded that three of the deaths during the strike were associated with delayed assistance.
