Association of Emergency Technicians defends INEM President’s dismissal over helicopters

The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians returned this Sunday to defend the dismissal of the President of the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (INEM) following criticism from the Ministry of Health regarding the treatment of patients by air transport.

In its statement, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians “reaffirms that the current board of directors does not meet any conditions that support its continuation in office” and that its actions have placed INEM “in a clearly deplorable situation.”

For the association, the problem reported by the Ministry of Health “is grounds for the immediate suspension of Luis Meira from his duties and the initiation of appropriate disciplinary proceedings.”

“We expect nothing less than the board president to resign, admitting the failure of his leadership and accepting responsibility for the poor standard of emergency medical care for the Portuguese people,” the statement said.

In a note sent to Lusa Agency, on the day of the end of the direct adjustment of the air transport service for patients, the Ministry of Health specified that INEM could launch a public tender for this service based on the 2023 Council of Ministers decree, avoiding the extension of the direct remuneration.

According to the Ministry of Health, from April 2 to today, INEM has not opened a single international public tender for the acquisition of the service. The trusteeship claims that it does not understand the reasons for this situation, since it asked the organization several questions. cases, but INEM “never offered a solution.”

The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians understands that “the country cannot trust” a leadership “with so many shortcomings and mistakes over nearly a decade” and advocates for Luis Meira’s leadership to be “properly studied,” especially the response measures taken in the event of a medical emergency.

The Health Ministry’s response came after the Jornal de Notícias reported on Saturday that INEM was looking to renew its direct agreement with Avincis, writing that “the institute wanted to launch the competition in April, but permission from the government was not forthcoming.”

In April last year, INEM announced it would launch a new public tender for the helicopter emergency medical service after the tender launched in January received two bids above the base price.

In a clarification issued today, the Health Ministry said that since coming to power, the government has held several meetings with INEM regarding the needs of the institution, adding that it has approved “an increase in the remuneration of firefighters working in the emergency medical service system and the budgetary change necessary to cover these costs, with a budgetary effect of 6.6 million euros per year.”