The Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) on Thursday said INEM’s current helicopter night design had revealed “serious deficiencies” in the first week of operating the two aircraft at night.
In its assessment, SPAC cited episodes of delays in care of approximately one hour that “jeopardize the mission success” of the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (INEM) helicopters.
“Several patients transported from Bragança Hospital in Porto by INEM were delayed by approximately 50 minutes – a delay caused by the decision to station a larger Aw139 helicopter at Macedo de Cavaleiros,” he warned in a statement.
The union organization points out that other patients transported from the Bragança hospital to the Vila Real hospital were also delayed by about 40 minutes. This delay was also caused by the decision to station the Aw139 helicopter at Macedo de Cavaleiros.
SPAC also condemned the delay in providing assistance caused by the absence of a helicopter from Viseu during the night, at 00:30 on January 1, to transport from the Hospital da Covilhã to the Hospital in Coimbra.
“Due to the lack of INEM helicopters at night, it is increasingly clear that assistance to the population has been compromised in the first week of 2024,” he stressed.
Reporting several incidents over the past week, the union noted that on January 3 – the first day of the arrival of a helicopter transferred from Évora to Macedo de Cavaleiros – a patient took 20 minutes longer to arrive at the Bragança hospital than at otherwise. The time was normal, since the Aw139 was supposed to land at a local airfield.
On January 4, Macedo de Cavaleiros’ helicopter became stuck in Porto during the night due to weather conditions, and the country became dependent on the helicopter, which was in Lola.
Three days later, Lole’s helicopter became inoperable during the night.
On January 8, as the union recalled, a Viseu helicopter flew from the Bragança hospital to the Santo António hospital in Porto.
“Normally this transport is carried out by the Macedo de Cavaleiros helicopter, but taking into account the delay that the patient might experience due to the operational limitations of this helicopter, it was decided, for the sake of the patient, to allocate the Viseu helicopter for this emergency,” he said.
The union also reminded that there would be “more cases like this, but they will not be reported”, warning that if INEM’s four helicopters were working 24 hours, there would always be a way to help patients, which, it stressed, “really will not happen with current format.”
Two of the four emergency medical helicopters maintained by INEM, in particular those parked in Viseu and Évora, stopped operating at night as of the 1st of this month, as announced by the Ministry of Health at the end of December last year.
Then, in a conversation with Lusa, INEM President Luis Meira said that this situation should last a maximum of six months.
According to the same person in charge, the other two helicopters, which are located in Macedo de Cavaleiros and Lola, continue to operate 24 hours a day.
In Viseu and Évora, at night, “the appropriate medical teams will guarantee the operation of two” VMERs (emergency and resuscitation medical vehicles).
INEM stressed that the device is 100% operational throughout the day and explained that the adjustment is the result of a consultation with the market, where the institute received only two responses, one of which contained a solution that will be implemented from January.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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