The PS secretary-general emphasized on Saturday that the Government “was properly informed about the strike by hospital emergency technicians and had twenty days to negotiate with the union. He criticized the executive, stating it showed a lack of competence and responsibility.
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Reaction to Statements by Health Officials
Pedro Nuno Santos, in a post on the social network X, responded to statements made on Friday by the Secretary of State for Health Management, he said:
This same fact was confirmed by the Secretary of State responsible, contradicting the first version presented by the Minister of Health.
Cristina Vaz Tomé, standing in for the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, during visits to two hospitals in Coimbra, acknowledged that the Government had received advance notice of the strike.
She admitted, however, that they had not anticipated the strike’s impact, especially given its overlap with another strike in the public administration.
The Secretary-General emphasized that from the advance notice to the alerts sent to both the Minister and the Prime Minister’s office, the government had ample opportunities to prevent the strike or, at the very least, reduce its impact—particularly by guaranteeing the provision of minimum services.
He added:
What was lacking was competence and responsibility. As of today, 10 deaths are being investigated. the excuse of ‘structural problems’ inherited from the past cannot justify the government’s negligence and irresponsibility.
Furthermore, he said:
If the government understands that INEM has weaknesses in its response, this assessment requires the government to be even more prudent and demanding in anticipating the impacts of the strike.
Público Article Highlights Lack of Minimum Service Requirements
Pedro Nuno Santos’ post includes an article from Público newspaper, published today. The article states that on the day strikes caused widespread disruption in emergency services, the National Institute of Medical Emergencies “did not establish minimum service requirements.”
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The newspaper reports that INEM (the National Institute of Medical Emergencies) did not assign specific workers to maintain minimum services during Monday’s strike. Furthermore, INEM did not challenge the general minimum service guidelines set for the public sector by this union.
INEM did not define minimum services on the day that strikes caused chaos in the aid.
The strike coincided with another organized by the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH), which targeted only overtime hours and did not require minimum service staffing. According to Público, INEM also did not challenge this decision made by the workers’ representatives.
