According to a report in the Jornel de Noticias, the National Medical Emergency Institute (INEM) received more than 1.3 million emergency calls in 2016, which resulted in the activation of more than 1.2 million emergency responses, such as ambulances, motorcycles or helicopters.

According to a note note from the Ministry of Health, INEM received in 2016 more 67,391 calls than in the previous year.

The calls made to the European Emergency Number (112) are answered by the PSP and GNR, which sends them to the INU Urgent Patient Advice Centers (CODU) whenever the reason for the call is related to emergencies or medical emergencies.

In this medical center of the INEM, the professionals “evaluate all the requests for help received, with the objective of determining the necessary and adequate resources for each occurrence”, recalls the note of the institute.

In 2016, the service of the more than 1.3 million emergency calls gave rise to the activation of almost 1.29 million means of emergency, among the different types of ambulance (emergency medical, relief, immediate support of life, Pediatric hospital), emergency bikes, emergency medical and resuscitation vehicles and helicopters.

The institute explained that the means are selected based on the clinical situation of the victims, the proximity of the place of occurrence and the accessibility to the place of occurrence.

Paulo Rebelo, INEM operator, underlines the importance of whoever calls for INEM to say “in a simple and clear way” the exact location and, whenever possible, with indication of reference points, the telephone number you are calling, the type of situation (illness, accident, childbirth), the number, sex and apparent age of the persons needing help and the main complaints and the changes they observe.

“The questions asked by CODU professionals are very important for INEM to act, since they aim to determine the severity of the emergency and the most appropriate means of relief to respond to the situation in question,” he said.