The Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians will request an investigation to determine the causes that prevented the mobilization of the emergency medical vehicle from Santa Maria Hospital for the accident with the Glória elevator, in Lisbon. A decision that comes after Expresso reported on Thursday, October 16th, that this vehicle was locked inside and, therefore, failed to provide assistance to the derailment, in which 16 people died, on September 3rd.
According to the information provided by the weekly, the VMER – Emergency and Resuscitation Medical Vehicle, which has a doctor and nurse on board – based at the Santa Maria Hospital it was locked from the inside and the replacement key was in the Algarve, which made it unfeasible to use it to help with the tragedy.
“We will immediately ask the president of INEM for an investigation to investigate the circumstances of what happened”, the union president told Lusa this Friday.
“It is unacceptable for a medical emergency responder not to respond to an emergency due to inaccessibility to the vehicle key”highlighted the president of the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH).
Rui Lázaro added that it is important to determine whether it was a “fault or negligence that led to the vehicle being locked with the key inside”, but also the reasons why the spare key “did not accompany the vehicle to the base where it was used”.
“The lack of procedures aimed at preventing cases like this is neglecting the response to citizens, which we cannot tolerate”, highlighted the union leader.
The derailment of the Glória elevator, managed by Carris, caused 16 deaths and around two dozen injuries, including Portuguese and foreigners of various nationalities.