The executive director of the National Health Service today directed responsibility to INEM for the transport delay of a patient who took more than five hours to reach Coimbra after being decided for transfer from the Hospital of Covilhã.
“This is a question you should ask INEM” (National Institute of Medical Emergency), stated Álvaro Almeida in an interview with CNN, when asked about the patient who, on Saturday, was transferred from the Hospital of Covilhã to the University Hospitals of Coimbra.
Between the decision to transfer the 49-year-old patient, with a cranial trauma, from Hospital of Covilhã to entering the emergency room in Coimbra, more than five hours passed.
The executive director of the National Health Service (SNS) pointed out that, similar to what happens in other countries, there are different levels of hospital care and, in more complicated situations, there may be a need to transfer patients to more specialized hospitals.
Defending that “any transfer should be made as quickly as possible,” the executive director of the SNS denied any responsibility in this case, emphasizing that “hospital transfer is not the responsibility of the executive direction.”
Álvaro Almeida assured that the contract awarded following the international public tender for hiring INEM’s emergency medical helicopter service “has nothing to do with the executive direction, it’s not a competence of the executive direction.”
Also speaking to CNN, the same position was defended by the president of the union of pre-hospital emergency technicians, Rui Lázaro, who considered that “the responsible parties have a face: it is the Government and INEM,” stating that “INEM did not promptly safeguard the timing of the tender” for hiring the aerial medical emergency service.
The public tender for hiring this service was awarded to the company Gulf Med Aviation Services Limited only at the end of March.
“The company had just over a month. The Government and INEM should have started this tender a bit earlier or a bit later,” accused Rui Lázaro, reiterating that the Air Force helicopters should be relocated to the interior of the country, where he believes they are more needed.
By the early evening today, Lusa contacted the press offices of INEM and the Ministry of Health but has not yet received any response.
