IL challenges parties to launch CPI on INEM

The parliamentary leader of IL challenged the other parties this Thursday to make a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the management of INEM viable if they want to “resolve the problems” of the institute and stated that she intends to determine political responsibilities.

Speaking to journalists at the Assembly of the Republic, the parliamentary leader of the IL, Mariana Leitão, justified the decision to move forward with a proposal for a commission of inquiry into the management of the National Institute of Medical Emergencies (INEM) by claiming that the party had exhausted “all mechanisms” in the last legislatures to understand the problems that exist at the institute.

“We understand that only through a parliamentary commission of inquiry will we be able to get to the bottom of the political responsibilities that also need to be investigated in this matter. We cannot be negligent with something that could put people's lives at risk,” he said.

Mariana Leitão said that the IL proposal will cover the period between 2019, because that was “when the situations at INEM began to worsen year after year”, and 2024.

Regarding the personalities she wants to be heard, Mariana Leitão said that she will request the hearing of all the Health Ministers from 2019 until now — Marta Temido, Manuel Pizarro and Ana Paula Martins –, as well as “all entities that have direct contact with INEM”.

Mariana Leitão highlighted that the institute “has several problems that have worsened over the years, namely lack of resources, professionals” and “lack of organization”, which translates into “an absence of timely response”, and argued that they need to be resolved.

“I am sure that several parliamentary groups represented in the Assembly of the Republic and several single deputies will certainly be in solidarity with this need to resolve INEM's problems and, therefore, we believe that this proposal will be made viable”, he said.

Mariana Leitão said that she has not yet spoken to any party to evaluate a possible viability, arguing that it is an initiative of IL itself.

“If there is one place where the State cannot, under any circumstances, fail, it is in protecting life and helping people. And what we found in the news that came out yesterday [Wednesday] (…) is that, following the INEM strike in November last year, there is at least one person who may have died due to lack of assistance”, he said.

Asked whether she believes that the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, should resign after the General Inspectorate of Health Activities (IGAS) concluded that the death of a man during the INEM strike in 2024 could have been avoided, Mariana Leitão did not respond directly.

“I think that the minister, after she herself said that she would assume all responsibilities, must now, based on the report that will also be released, she herself and the Prime Minister make this assessment and verify how they will assume these responsibilities,” he said.

In the last legislature, IL had presented two proposals for commissions of inquiry — to Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and to EFACEC — which were approved, but whose work was not completed, due to the fall of the Government and the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic.

Asked whether, with this inquiry into INEM, IL also intends to present these two proposals for commissions of inquiry again, Mariana Leitão replied: “ We are now going to present this proposal ”.

“It is likely that we will present others, namely those that we have already presented in the past, but at this moment it seems to us that the urgency, considering that people's lives are at stake, is to present this parliamentary commission of inquiry to INEM”, he said.