The president of INEM said that 'the system did not fail' in the case of the elderly man in Seixal who died while waiting for assistance, and that the new system 'did not influence' the dispatch of resources because INEM activated the response within 15 minutes but there were no ambulances available on the south bank to respond.
"The new system is running exactly as expected. It did not fail," says the president of INEM
Wednesday, 7 January 2026RSS
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Context & Explainers
The National Institute of Medical Emergency (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica), known as INEM, coordinates Portugal’s pre-hospital emergency care, ambulance dispatch and medical response to 112 calls. It matters to expats because INEM is responsible for ambulance response times and on-scene care — incidents like the reported three-hour wait in Seixal can trigger investigations, affect public confidence and influence how quickly you can expect help in an emergency.
