The Municipality of Loulé expressed this Monday its "complete disagreement" with the decision of the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) to withdraw from the county the Helicopter that was located at the Municipal Heliport of Loulé for about two and a half years, relocating him to Beja. The Loulé municipality presents figures, namely the prevalence of occurrences that «in the Algarve (87 percent) is clearly higher than that recorded in the District of Beja (11 percent), in the period between April 2010 and August 2012».
In a statement, the Loulé City Council considers that the alternative presented, "the adaptation of a KAMOV (heavy helicopter at the service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs) to provide relief", is not enough for the needs of the region, "already which, due to its characteristics, is intended for other types of services than emergency medical operations'.
«The Algarve, not only because of the resident population throughout the year but, fundamentally, because of the floating population that triples in the summer season, needs a permanent service that provides immediate assistance in emergency situations, because the fact that the Central Hospital still not being implemented, it makes it necessary for there to be equipment that transports patients to major centers such as Lisbon (32 percent of the occurrences in the Algarve refer to inter-hospital transfers)», stressed the municipality.
Loulé also considered that "this measure will clearly harm not only the populations but also the Algarve's tourism, since, nowadays, health services are a determining factor in choosing a tourist destination."
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