The Ministry of Health owes firefighters more than 28 million euros for transporting non-urgent patients, the president of the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) told parliament on Thursday.
In the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, where he was heard at the request of Chega regarding the fire season, António Nunes stated that “the hospitals of Coimbra alone owe the firefighters 2.5 million euros” and the debt for the health of the Pernes fire department in the district of Santarém is 900 thousand euros.
“There is no one who can face this situation,” the League president said, also aware that the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) has “several debts” to the firefighters, the amount of which he did not quantify.
“We will be able to have a reliable and qualified fire brigade only if the health debt does not exceed 28 million euros, if INEM allocates the missing 150 ambulances to firefighters, if the permanent funding of humanitarian fire associations for 2025 provides for an amount of about 46.6 million euros,” he said.
António Nunes also said the firefighters’ social security fund was “adequately funded.”
“We should not have launched the new forest fire suppression device without ANEPC paying off debts from previous years, some of which date back to 2019, or without limited budgetary allocations that provide for the payment of 2.87 euros per hour to firefighters” who are permanently stationed in the barracks during the rural fire suppression system, he also stressed.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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