Emergency medical services in Portugal

The modern Portuguese emergency medical services were created in 1964, and were initially provided only in the major cities of Lisbon, and later Porto, Coimbra, Aveiro, Setúbal and Faro, by PSP Police ambulances and staff.

Of the services provided by INEM, some are operated by their own staff (e.g. guidance centers and ambulances in major cities), while the operation of others is delegated to the staff of local fire departments, and of the Portuguese Red Cross, but using INEM's equipment (e.g. ambulances in small towns).

In major cities, the emergency medical service units of fire departments serve as backups or reinforcements to INEM.

The Portuguese Red Cross – through its Corps of Rescue Units (CORUS) – is another major provider of medical emergency services.

[1] It covers Continental Portugal and operates like other organised Emergency medical services around the world.

Besides CODU's, SIEM also operates INEM's Anti-Poison Information Center (CIAV), which provides 24/7 toxicological medical information at a national level (including in the Azores and Madeira), as well as the Pediatric Inter-Hospital Transport (TIP) subsystem, which provides emergency transportation of high risk newborns to specialized hospital units.

Unlike continental Portugal, where air ambulance services are typically provided directly by INEM with its own helicopters, in the Atlantic islands, the Portuguese Air Force is in charge of emergency patient evacuations between islands, and from ships.