Firefighters’ pro-active ambulance task force, mobilised for the weekend to back-up insufficient resources of INEM (the national medical emergency authority), were called out 16 times – and that was just on Sunday.
In spite of the fact that civil protection agency ANEPC has labelled the initiative ‘illegal’ and unlikely to have any useful effect, the eight ambulances ‘waiting for call out’ proved their worth – and appear to have helped put ANEPC’s backs up in the process.
According to Lusa, ANEPC president José Manuel Moura “met for about half an hour with his INEM counterpart, “who left the agency’s premises without making any statements”.
As for ANEPC’s less than effusive observations over the weekend, president of the League of Firefighters António Nunes has said they ‘make no sense’. Nunes is due to meet with ANEPC later this afternoon – and clearly disgusted by ANEPC’s stance.
The weekend task force was made up of “ambulances that do not belong to ANEPC, nor to INEM,” he told reporters. They belonged to “fire stations that were saving lives, resolving a problem that is lack of means to save people. The firefighters (involved) were all volunteering – working away from their families. Where was ANEPC?” he blasted.
The firefighters’ initiative came as a result of the three cases last week where people for whom ambulances were called out died waiting for them to arrive.
The argument of the authorities is that post-mortem examinations need to be carried out before anyone can blame the ambulances’ tardy arrival for the various deaths.
Sources: LUSA/ Correio da Manhã
