"Between January and October 2022, for P1 (emerging) events, INEM's average response time for activating the first means is one minute. For P3 (urgent) events, it is three minutes", said INEM, in a written reply sent to Lusa agency.

INEM's position comes in response to complaints from the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians and the Union of Pre-Hospital Emergency Technicians (STEPH) that reported the existence of dozens of situations of delay in the emergency response by INEM, often with more than an hour of waiting.

In its response to Lusa, INEM underlined that one of CODU's primary functions "is to prioritize occurrences, ensuring that emergency means are sent as quickly as possible to situations identified as P1 (emerging)."

The medical triage system in operation at CODU prioritizes events that are immediately life-threatening, with victims in a critical condition and in need of immediate intervention (P1), followed by events with urgent victims who need intervention within a window slightly higher than the previous one (P3).