INEM's medical emergency and resuscitation vehicles (VMER) were stopped for 5,400 hours due to a lack of crew, that is, lack of a doctor to guarantee assistance in urgent cases. In total, the ambulances were operational for almost 7,000 hours, with an inoperability rate of 1.8%, according to a report by Jornal de Notícias (JN).

The problem was found to be most serious in the interior of the country: according to the data cited by JN, in the hospitals in Guarda, Covilhã, Castelo Branco and Portalegre, which had a total of 3,254 hours that were not able to ne operational, which corresponds to 135 full days.