The average number of 112 calls waiting on Thursday afternoon fell to eight, down from 60 on Monday.a source from the Prehospital Emergency Technicians Union (STEPH) told Lusa.
According to the president of STEPH, Rui Lázaro, who on Thursday afternoon called off the overtime strike that had been going on since October 30, between 4:00 p.m. and midnight on Thursday the average number of calls on hold was eight.
In comparison, on Monday, The worst day of delays in answering calls to 112, at 6:00 p.m., there were around 60 calls waiting nationwide.with a decrease in the average waiting time compared to the morning shift.
In addition to the delay in answering calls, on Monday the strike forced 44 emergency services in the country to stop during the afternoon shift.
The consequences of the delay in responding to emergency calls began to be felt over the weekend, when STEPH reported the death of two people allegedly due to delays in care.
At the time, the Government announced an internal audit of the INEM to evaluate the conditions under which these two deaths occurred, which should be concluded within a month.
After these, other cases were reported and, to date, according to the press, there are seven since the start of the strike and overtime of pre-hospital emergency technicians.
Given these consequences, the INEM announced a set of measures to respond to delays in answering calls, including the creation of emergency triage for calls with waiting times of three or more minutes or the placement of nurses in the Centers. Emergency Patient Operations (CODU) to perform some functions until now guaranteed by pre-hospital emergency technicians.
As Rui Lázaro told Lusa, on average, pre-hospital emergency technicians do not plus 40% of your weekly salary (35 hours) in overtime.
On Thursday, after obtaining a negotiation protocol with the Ministry of Health, STEPH called off the strike, which demanded, among other issues, a career review and better salary conditions.
INEM has the slowest response time in the last five years and had cars stopped for more than 6 thousand hours until October
The union has been denouncing the lack of attractiveness of the careers of these technicians, who begin their careers with a salary of around 920 euros. The latest data released indicate that there are 800 pre-hospital emergency technicians missing at the INEM.
At the time he called the strike, STEPH said it had tried to reach an agreement with the guardianship and warned that a strike was imminent. having not received a response.
Both the Public Ministry and the General Inspection of Health Activities (IGAS) investigate deaths that allegedly occurred due to delays in the emergency response.
Source: Observadora
