Northern emergency center hit by two-hour IT failure

Thursday, 23 July 2026AI summary
Northern emergency center hit by two-hour IT failure
Photo: RTP Notícias

The Northern Patient Emergency Guidance Centre (Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes or CODU) experienced a two-hour IT system failure on Thursday evening. The outage, which lasted from 19:20 to 21:20, disrupted call handling and the dispatch of emergency resources, with reports indicating at least 50 incidents were not processed during this time.

Context & Explainers

The CODU (Centro de Orientação de Doentes Urgentes) is the emergency medical dispatch center responsible for coordinating urgent pre-hospital care in Portugal. It operates under the National Institute of Medical Emergency (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica or INEM) to assess medical emergencies and dispatch the appropriate resources, such as ambulances or helicopters.