Portugal’s medical emergency services are in a state of chaos
A 77-year-old Algarve man is among the six people who have died in Portugal in the past week waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
The elderly man, who had been cycling, was found conscious but collapsed by the roadside in the small village of Cacela Velha, Vila Real de Santo António, on Monday (November 4).
The foreign couple that found him tried calling 112 – the national emergency hotline – but were unable to speak to an operator. Three other people also tried to call 112, but to no avail.
Help was only sent after a neighbour decided to call the local firefighters, who alerted INEM emergency medical services.
The man had already entered cardiac arrest by the time an ambulance arrived, nearly two hours after the first call was made. Advanced life support measures were performed on the way to the Vila Real de Santo António Basic Emergency Service, but the man could not be revived.
Speaking to SIC television, Pedro Rafael, the commander of the Vila Real de Santo António Fire Department, stated that Monday was a challenging day “with several constraints.”
This case adds to a growing number of recent incidents in which patients have died following significant delays in emergency response through the 112 line. Six people have died already, which has prompted the government to announce urgent solutions to tackle the delays, such as the creation of automatic triage for emergency calls left on hold for more than three minutes.
Health minister Ana Paula Martins has admitted INEM is struggling under “an enormous lack of resources”, which existed even before the current strike over overtime waged by pre-hospital emergency technicians.
