Fire brigades will run 581 ambulances this winter, 111 more than a year ago. The most serious cases still wait too long
Most emergency ambulance calls in Portugal are handled by fire brigades (bombeiros) under contract with INEM, the emergency medical service. This winter they will run 581 such ambulances, up from 470 a year ago, INEM president Luís Cabral said in an interview with Observador. Most of the extra ambulances are in Lisbon, on the south bank of the Tagus, in Santarém district and in the Algarve (Observador, Observador).
Ambulances still reach the most seriously ill patients later than they should. The main reason, Cabral says, is that dispatching an ambulance after a call takes too long; INEM promises to fix this with new technology. Staff are also in short supply, especially in Lisbon and the Algarve: a recruitment round for another 200 ambulance technicians will be announced this year.
