In response to a question from journalists about the lack of staff at the National Institute for Emergency Medical (INEM), on the sidelines of the opening of the regional mission building of this institute in the Algarve, Ana Paula Martins acknowledged the lack of human resources at “various levels,” including emergency medical technicians before the hospital.
“That’s right, there are things missing from INEM. A memorandum was prepared immediately, since the day we joined the Ministry of Health, the President of INEM made sure to prepare a very detailed memorandum on all the needs that INEM has and is facing, and the need for human resources. Announced.
The Minister said that in the coming weeks she should return to the Algarve to work on a plan for the summer, in order to ensure that the lack of human resources, coupled with the holidays of professionals, does not affect the response that will be provided during the period most crowded with the influx of visitors and tourists to the region.
The Minister of Health added that a request had been submitted for at least 200 technicians since February and March of last year, noting that the priority now is for the ministry’s interests to be able to develop a plan to ensure the necessary response in the summer.
“And now we have to look at the human resources – they are not just facilities, they are human resources – through the staff maps or human resources, to put it better, that we have within the scope of the Ministry of Health, see how we have been able to meet these needs effectively,” he added.
Ana Paula Martins stated that there is also “cooperation with firefighters” in this context, which the Ministry wants “to maintain and strengthen, and which is also on the table to be reviewed”, and which could also contribute to achieving this goal.
“This is a worrying situation, one that we have to manage – with the region and with those on the ground here in the region – to resolve it as quickly as possible,” the minister stressed, revealing that “next week or at the beginning of next week” he will return to the Algarve.
The aim of this upcoming visit, according to the government official, is to develop a “response plan to these needs” in collaboration with the administration and professionals of the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS), as well as with INEM.
Ana Paula Martins considered that “the time is urgent, because summer is now, and tomorrow”, but stressed that the response will be prepared, “in collaboration with the Board of Directors, and obviously INEM”, so that the Algarve has “a very quick action plan” for the summer.
“But let me also tell you something, ULS and its board of directors have a plan on the table, and now they need reinforcements, and they need us to be able to attract more human resources so they can be here over the summer,” he concluded, “responding to medical and surgical emergencies.” “This is what we will have to do with the capacity installed in the Algarve.”
INEM’s Faro and Quarteira 3 ambulances, the closest to the facilities inaugurated by the Health Minister today, will be parked 76% and 78% of the time in May, respectively, according to pre-hospital emergency technicians.
In a statement, the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH), which conducted a survey on the inoperability rate of INEM ambulances for May, highlighted that more than half had “high periods of inoperability”.
Through the survey conducted, STEPH concluded that 20 ambulances were more than 50% inoperable during the month of May and that there were ambulances that “have not opened for several months due to a lack of technicians.” In the case of the Faro and Quarteira 3 ambulances, non-operation rates are mainly due to a shortage of technicians, according to STEPH.
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