Union deplores “scheme” of overtime payments to INEM directors

The Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians was not surprised by the findings of the financial inspection on INEM and regrets the "scheme" found so that managers received overtime when they should have been exempt from working hours.

Speaking to Lusa, Rui Lázaro, president of the union, said that what surprised him was the fact that it was professionals in the medical and nursing careers, in addition to managers, who received the most overtime pay, when the greatest shortage of human resources is in the area of pre-hospital emergency technicians.

The report by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), published today by the newspaper Público, states that the INEM management decided, given the shortage of workers, to “authorize the payment of additional work actually performed”, exceeding the limits for paying overtime.

However, the IGF considers that there is no legal basis for exceeding the limits.

In the case of doctors and nurses, there are situations where the value of overtime paid last year varied between 45 and 97 thousand euros and, in 2023, between 43 thousand and 106 thousand euros.

Speaking to Lusa, the president of the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) regrets that this is a practice “that has been going on for several years”.

"This report highlights what we have already been denouncing regarding the damaging management of INEM, which is also slow to implement structural changes aimed at safeguarding the public interest," he stated.

The audit, requested by the Minister of Health and which covered the period of the presidency of Luís Meira, who resigned in July 2024 following the previous direct adjustment made for the helitransport service, concluded that there was a lack of “instituted mechanisms for control and automatic recording, or otherwise, of the hours actually flown by each air vehicle”.

In this regard, the president of STEPH considers the situation “almost ridiculous”.

"Given that the medical teams are paid and hired by INEM, many of them are INEM employees, how come INEM doesn't have a control mechanism to know when the helicopter is actually operating?" he asks.

In response to the dispute, INEM said it was working to "continue raising awareness among contract managers" about the need to strengthen "material and financial monitoring of contracts," as well as creating a multidisciplinary team to support the contract manager.

When questioned by Lusa, Rui Lázaro recalled that, over the past 10 years, INEM has announced working groups and teams to make decisions that never happened, giving the example of the working group that STEPH was part of and that was supposed to make a proposal to renew the uniform.

"The working group has existed for over 10 years and has yet to reach any conclusions. Therefore, we have serious doubts about INEM's ability to organize working groups or teams to control anything," he stated.

The official also questions what will happen to the managers “who are receiving overtime work irregularly, since they should be exempt from working hours”, stressing: “It is these same managers (…) who led INEM to the state it is in”.

The IGF also detected control failures in the management of the land fleet, which, in addition to INEM, also includes the fire departments and the Portuguese Red Cross, with whom the National Institute of Medical Emergency has protocols to ensure pre-hospital care.

It also highlights that “within the scope of the PEM/PR protocols [Medical Emergency Posts/Reserve Posts], mechanisms are not implemented that allow for the unequivocal identification and investigation of situations of contractual non-compliance and the possible application of the foreseen penalties”.

It also states that the “reduced number” of actions taken to authorize and monitor patient transport “reveals significant risks regarding the compliance and quality of the process” and warns of the risk of “double financing or overfunding” of humanitarian associations of volunteer firefighters.