An elderly man died yesterday in Seixal after waiting almost three hours for help from INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency), the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians has revealed, suggesting the new triage system “may have influenced the outcome”.
Lusa has had access to the timeline of this case, which shows that the first call to INEM for help for the 78-year-old came at 11.20am, with the situation being classified as priority 3 – which requires the deployment of resources within 60 minutes – but the medical vehicle was only sent at 14:09, almost three hours later.
The timeline records that the man had fallen at home, and appeared agitated, confused, drowsy, and prostrate.
Despite being classified ‘a priority 3 situation’, more than an hour later, at 12:48, the timeline indicates that Seixal Red Cross had no ambulance available, that ambulances in Almada and Seixal were occupied.
At 1.29pm (two hours after the initial call), there was a second call to INEM questioning the delay.
At 2.05pm there was a new call to say that the victim was in cardiorespiratory arrest.
At 2.09pm an ambulance from Almada was dispatched, by which time it was too late to help the victim.
Contacted by Lusa, the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) admitted that the new triage system, which has just come into effect, ‘may have contributed to the fatal outcome’.
“This probably contributed because – depending on the priority assigned to it – the means could be sent within 60 minutes. Therefore, it doesn’t surprise me that there was no demand for means to be sent,” STEPH president, Rui Lázaro, tells Lusa, explaining that “if the new system had not been implemented, as soon as the incident was reported (11:20), an ambulance would have already been sought to be dispatched.”
Rui Lázaro adds that yesterday’s outcome “confirms the risk of leaving people waiting” and confirms that since the new INEM triage system started operating, the union has been receiving daily complaints about situations where the time allotted for priority cases has been exceeded, without any ambulance being dispatched.
“There have been many cases,” said Lázaro: on Monday, for instance, there were several situations in the Algarve that should have seen emergency services deployed within 60 minutes – but this only happened two or almost three hours later, and the consequences are unknown.
On Friday, INEM announced the start of a new system for handling calls received at CODU (Operational Centers for Urgent Patients), which provides for five priority levels (emergency, very urgent, urgent, less urgent and non-urgent), similar to the triage used in hospitals.
The classification results from the clinical assessment carried out by CODU professionals, based on information collected during the call to 112.
The emerging priority, for situations of imminent risk to life, implies an immediate response, with the dispatch of basic life support resources, coordinated with immediate or advanced life support.
For very urgent cases, the new system provides for the arrival of the first rescue resource on site within 18 minutes, and in urgent situations with a risk of clinical deterioration, the expected response time is up to 60 minutes.
For less urgent cases, the expected response time is 120 minutes.
INEM’s new triage system has been the target of criticism, with firefighters saying that, by defining waiting times by priority, patients are left waiting for an ambulance, even though resources are available.
A report by SIC has also revealed a case where a request for help received by the Tábua firefighters, from a member of the public who had called INEM to be told an ambulance could take up to two hours to arrive – despite there being one available at the local fire station, which ended up responding immediately.
Source: LUSA
