The Portuguese Firefighters Association (LBP) delivered a letter of protest to the Ministry of Health on Thursday objecting to the lack of measures to respond to restrictions in hospital emergency rooms and financial problems in transporting patients.
The protest letter is scheduled to be delivered to the Ministry of Health at 11 a.m. and will be attended by heads of area fire unions, association leaders and leaders of volunteer fire departments.
LBP said in a statement that the firefighters mentioned in the protest letter all the constraints they faced, especially financial constraints in carrying out relief tasks before reaching the hospital and transporting patients.
LBP also regrets the lack of response from the Ministry of Health to solve the problem of shortage of ambulances due to emergency restrictions in hospitals.
The Association proposes a set of solutions to mitigate the consequences of emergency closures in hospitals and to reformulate the conditions for transporting and assisting patients.
“LBP has realized that emergency closures in hospitals have strong implications for the relief missions carried out by fire departments,” which every day face indications of patients and victims moving tens of kilometers from the reference hospital.
