Ambulances drive about 80 km just to arrive at the scene.

The Union of Prehospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) reported this Thursday that ambulances travel about 80 kilometers to get to just one case, after an industry association denounced pressure in the emergency department.

“This has been happening over the past few months. (…) Yesterday [quarta-feira] It was a particularly difficult day in Greater Lisbon, with many ambulances from the north and even from outside the municipality of Lisbon moving to the South Bank due to the lack of ambulances,” said STEPH President Rui Lázaro to Lusa.

Rui Lazaro’s clarification came after the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (ANTEM) denounced the accumulation of “rows and rows of ambulances as hospital services use stretchers as hundreds of patients wait in the corridors of hospital wards and emergency medical services, what is usually called “salvation” is called into question.

“Yesterday we had complaints [quarta-feira] from the Santarém area to Greater Lisbon,” he said, noting that ambulances “may travel 70/80 kilometers to arrive in only one case.”

According to the union leader, the situation is due to a “shortage of technicians” at the National Institute of Emergency Medical Services (INEM) and the “inadequacy of INEM triage flows through CODU”. [Centros de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes]”.

This inadequacy, according to Rui Lázaro, results in “many ambulances” being called in non-urgent situations, ultimately “draining funds”.

“Hospitals can no longer admit patients because INEM ends up referring all patients either in their ambulances or Red Cross ambulances to an emergency hospital when many of them have to get a response from another health service other than the service emergency care. urgency,” he said.

Rui Lazaro also recalled that the pressure in the emergency room was there even before the pandemic, saying that INEM had not taken any steps to “minimize these restrictions.”

“The failed HR policy at INEM continues, leaving more and more technical specialists outside the institute. The last competitions for admission ended empty and [os técnicos] dozens say goodbye every month,” he noted, adding that “CODU verification flows have yet to be reviewed.”

ANTEM, on the other hand, claimed that “it has worked with the competent authorities to put an end to such situations, but without success and without noticeable improvements that inspire the future.”

The President of the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) also told Lusa that several ambulances were detained in hospitals, with a more frequent situation in the medical facilities of Setúbal, Barreiro, Garcia da Horta and Caldas da Rainha.

António Nunez explained that there are hospitals with 20 fire ambulances.