The president of INEM informed workers of the intention to transfer all of the institute’s services located in Lisbon to Oeiras, allowing greater proximity to the PSP center that operates the emergency number 112.
In the communication sent to workers, which the Lusa agency had access to this Friday, February 13, Luís Mendes Cabral alleges that INEM’s current facilities in the capital, which house the headquarters and one of the Urgent Patients’ Guidance Centers (CODU), failed several years ago to “guarantee the necessary space, quality and conditions” for the high performance of their functions.
Calls made to 112 are answered by security forces at emergency centers, which channel health cases to INEM’s Urgent Patient Guidance Centers (CODU).
A source from the institute told Lusa that INEM’s move from Lisbon to Oeiras requires an opinion from ESTAMO, the public company that manages the State’s real estate assets in an integrated manner.
In this consultation with workers, the person responsible for the institute also recalls that the ongoing restructuring will involve an increase in personnel and that the Independent Technical Commission recommended that the pre-hospital medical emergency service “should have a headquarters where the management bodies, support and decision support services and an operational services department are located”.
Furthermore, Luís Mendes Cabral alluded to the action proposals of the National Council for Civil and Emergency Planning, which point out the need to “promote greater autonomy for CODUs and guarantee communications with the 112 service or the installation of CODUs next to the 112 service”.
The president of INEM also states that one of the towers of the building where the Centro Operacional do Sul (COSUL) is located – one of the 112 centers operated by PSP -, in Oeiras, is available to install INEM’s headquarters, which would allow to concentrate in a single space all services currently spread across various locations in Lisbon.
With the communication sent this week, the INEM board intended to consult the Workers’ Commission (CT) about the “impact that such a measure may have” on employees, “as well as request mitigation suggestions for any disruption that such a decision may cause”.
In a statement, the CT said today that, without concrete elements, it will not issue an opinion on the change of facilities, because this “would be legitimizing a procedure without a sufficient factual, technical and economic-financial basis”.
“CT does not accept a ‘consultation’ without complete documentation. Proceeding with an operation of this nature based on generalities is unacceptable, puts working conditions, operational continuity (including CODU/shifts) at risk and could compromise the public interest and the institute’s assets, despite there being a consensus on the need for better facilities for all professionals”, he warned.
In this sense, it required several elements, such as the deliberation of the INEM Board of Directors, the schedule, the migration plan for the new facilities, the legal framework, the total and multi-annual costs and the impact on workers, among others.
“The CT made it clear that its opinion will only be issued after full receipt of the requested information”, highlighted the statement, adding that one of the next steps will be the holding of a General Workers’ Assembly, scheduled for March 5th.
The workers’ representative body also assured that “it will not validate irreversible decisions without transparency, without a documentary basis and without a serious assessment of the impacts”.
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