Medical professionals at the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) are expressing concerns over new criteria regarding admission by consensus, which impacts their ability to integrate fully into the health emergency service due to scheduling conflicts. These criteria require them to maintain shifts that conflict with full-time work at INEM, as INEM isn’t officially recognized as an emergency service, automatically excluding its doctors from this specialty, according to a statement from the workers’ representative body.
The representatives point out that despite rulings by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) recognizing the functional equivalence of the Emergency Medical Helicopter Service and the Patient Orientation Center for Emergencies (CODU) to a Level 1 emergency service, this alignment is not supported by current legislation.
The Workers’ Committee (CT) argues this situation undermines the recognition of doctors working at INEM.
“This decision is particularly surprising for INEM medical career professionals, as it is INEM itself that regulates the emergency medical system in Portugal,” the document states.
The workers also consider that the future training of intern doctors in this specialty could be jeopardized, “since the training plan includes the integration of internships at INEM to complete it.”
The CT emphasizes, “According to standards set by the Medical Association (applicable to all specialties), training should be ensured by specialist doctors and conducted in institutions with recognized educational capability. However, due to the recent approval of Consensus Admission Criteria for the Specialty of Emergency and Trauma Medicine, INEM is not allowed to have these specialists on its staff, nor does it possess the educational capability or conditions to accept interns. This endangers the future certification of doctors in this specialty.”
“Even more concerning and surprising is the fact that INEM was represented by a member specifically appointed by the president of the institute’s management board, who apparently failed to address this issue in a timely manner, focusing solely on the educational aspect, which neither affects nor is part of the institute’s responsibilities,” the CT adds.
