Firefighters approve fees for storing stretchers in hospitals

This Monday, fire brigades approved the decision to charge hospitals for immobilizing ambulance stretchers, starting Wednesday, January 10th.

The decision was approved at a meeting of the Executive Council of the League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) at the Gouveia volunteer firemen’s barracks.

The cost varies from 50 to 150 euros.

Antonio Nunez assured that if a “robust solution” is not presented at a meeting with the NHS executive on Tuesday, firefighters will start charging from Wednesday “until that solution appears.”

“Firefighters are incurring additional costs that are not covered by any protocol, we need to ensure that the costs are reimbursed. Firefighters don’t want to make money from emergencies, firefighters don’t want to get hurt by emergencies,” he said. .

The leader acknowledged that the solution would not solve the problem, but argued that firefighters should not be “subsidized by the poor functioning of hospitals as the situation worsens.”

Antunez Nunez stressed that after the hour, “there is no reason why the stretcher should not be returned and the ambulance should be parked in the parking lot waiting for the stretcher.”

This Monday, the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, found it incomprehensible that there is no system to prevent the storage of firemen’s stretchers in hospitals.

“What I really don’t understand is that we can’t have a system in every hospital where firefighters don’t have to wait until they get a stretcher. I sincerely hope that this will be resolved,” – Minister of Health. Manuel Pizarro told reporters in Cantanhede.

According to the official, this is not a general situation in the country, but rather a situation that occurs in “half a dozen hospitals,” which means that “in all others [hospitais] solutions have already been found.”