PS wants hearings of the president of INEM, minister of Health and minister of Defense

The PS announced this Tuesday that it will request urgent hearings of the resigning president of INEM, the Minister of Health and the Minister of National Defense to clarify “contradictory and conflicting positions” on the purchase of helicopters medical emergency.

“Yesterday’s news [segunda-feira] realize that the president of INEM submitted his resignation to the Minister of Health, due to differences between the institute he leads and the Ministry in relation to the procedure for the acquisition of helicopters medical emergency”, can be read in a note from the PS parliamentary group.

On Monday, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, received Luís Meira, after the Ministry of Health criticized on Sunday the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) for letting the deadline for the launch expire. §ment of the international public tender, requiring a new direct award.

“In view of the contradictory and conflicting positions of the president of INEM and the Minister of Health and the little information about the conversations held between the areas of health and national defense, It is urgently necessary, in the name of the public interest, to clarify the truth of the facts and determine responsibilities“, justify the socialists.

For this reason, the PS announced that it will request “the hearing of the president of INEM, the Minister of National Defense and the Minister of Health as a matter of urgency”.

Throughout the note, the socialists recall the entire case, reporting Sunday’s position from the Ministry of Health, which criticized INEM for the lack of a public tender for helicopters, clarifying that the institute could have launched a tender public service for air transport of patients based on a resolution of the Council of Ministers of 2023, avoiding prolonging the direct award.

That same day, INEM guaranteed that it will “ensure the continuity of the medical emergency helicopter service through a new contract established with the current operator, within the value authorized by the previous Government in October 2023”.

The socialists refer to the INEM statement in which this entity concludes “in view of the absence of any response from the guardianship that would allow the opening of a new international public tender, the only alternative to not awarding a new contract by direct award would be for the country to no longer have this service, which would be unacceptable“.

“Questioned a few weeks ago at the Health Commission, Minister Ana Paula Martins informed Parliament that her ministry was in talks with the Ministry of Defense for an alternative solution to the competition in question“, the PS also points out.

Socialists also remember the recent parliamentary hearing of the Minister of National Defense, in which Nuno Melo said that “the Portuguese Air Force, with a great sense of responsibility, will make available, and this is also the will of the Ministry of Health, two helicopters for medical emergency actions, within the scope of Health.”

In response to the aforementioned statement, INEM states that “it was not consulted, at any time, about the possibility of intervention by the Armed Forces in the medical emergency helitransport process, which is why it continues unaware of how or if this contribution can be made.”