The PS announced this Tuesday that it will request urgent hearings for the president to resign from INEM, the Minister of Health and the Minister of National Defense to clarify “contradictory and conflicting positions” regarding the purchase of emergency medical helicopters.
“Yesterday’s news [segunda-feira] a report that the president of INEM sent his resignation to the Minister of Health, due to differences between the institution he heads and the ministry regarding the procedure for obtaining emergency medical helicopters”, read in a note that was accessed at the plant.
On Monday, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, received Luís Meira, after criticizing the Ministry of Health, on Sunday, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies (INEM) for allowing the deadline for the launch of the competition to publicly expire international, forcing a new direct agreement.
“Given the conflicting and contradictory positions of the president of INEM and the Minister of Health and the little information about the conversations that took place between the areas of health and national defence, it is urgently necessary, in the name of the public interest, that so. clarify the truth of the facts and determine responsibilities”, justify the socialists.
For this reason, the PS announced that it will request “a hearing from 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 whole situation, reporting the position of the Ministry of Health on Sunday, which criticized INEM for the lack of a public tender for helicopters, clarifying that the institute could launch a public tender for the air transport service. for patients based on a resolution from 2023 from the Council of Ministers, avoiding the extension of a direct award.
On the same day, INEM gave a guarantee that it will ensure “the continuity of the emergency medical helicopter service through a new contract established with the current operator, within the value previously authorized by the Government in October 2023”.
The socialists refer to the INEM statement in which it concludes that “in the absence of any response from the authorities that would allow the opening of a new international public tender, the only alternative to awarding a new contract through a direct award is the country. to stop this service, which would be unacceptable.”
“Questioned a few weeks ago in the Health Committee, Minister Ana Paula Martins informed Parliament that her ministry was in talks with the Ministry of Defense for another solution to the competition in question”, the PS also informs.
Socialists 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 provide, and this is also the wish of the Ministry of Health, two helicopters. for emergency medical actions , within the scope of Health.”
In response to the aforementioned statement, INEM states that “it was not consulted, at any time, regarding the possibility of the Armed Forces intervening in the emergency medical helicopter transport process, and therefore does not know how or if the contribution could be achieve this. “