The death yesterday of a 78-year-old man, left waiting for an ambulance for almost three hours, has inflamed the political space today: PS Socialists want to hear the president of INEM (in charge of health emergency response) – whose reasons are that INEM ‘had no ambulances available’ – while presidential candidate Henrique Gouveia e Melo has hit out at ‘government boys’ (people put into positions of authority in public administration without the necessary expertise).
Talking to reporters during a campaign visit to the Port of Leixões – and against the backdrop of a struggling health service always in the news for the wrong reasons – the former Chief of Staff of the Navy said: “A state that fails constantly is a state that requires the attention of political power. We cannot continually fail, fail, fail and think that everything is all right.”
“Who is responsible? Why did things fail? Nobody knows. Do we know why planes were on the ground when we needed them during the fires? It seems to me that there is never anyone to blame for anything…”
A front-runner for the post of President of the Republic, Gouveia e Melo considered “the state has to change a lot, and politics in Portugal has to change a lot”.
As for the opposition, PS Socialists and Bloco de Esquerda are ‘on the case’. The latter is asking for explanations, and an answer for what the government proposes to do about delays being reported concerning INEM’s new system of triage, while the PS ‘wants to hear INEM president Luís Cabral’ whose position this far is that the triage system ‘works’ but circumstances beyond INEM’s control – namely the retention of ambulance stretchers in hospitals – are causing constraints.
Mariana Vieira da Silva, for the PS, has told journalists today that “at this point, the existence of the minister of health is of little relevance (…) she never responds to any difficult situation”. Therefore, for “quick and complete” answers, the party has sent questions to the prime minister.
“We cannot continue to live in a country where when a citizen calls INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency) they hope to get lucky, when what they are supposed to expect is a response, and that is what we need to see guaranteed. What the Socialist Party is saying is that the Prime Minister has to give an answer,” she stressed.
This far there has been no word from the deceased man’s family. Their story may be in the tabloid press tomorrow.
Whatever the case, this situation is yet another ‘deeply low point’ in the performance of state services in place to help save people’s lives, not to leave them hanging.
Sources: LUSA/ SIC Notícias
