Complaints between the firefighters and the Bilbao Police for delays in emergency care after the end of the municipal ambulance
The City Council admits some “coordination problems” but ensures that officials now carry out more intervention with health care than last year
The municipal ambulance of the Bilbao City Council stopped working on January 16 and its workers were relocated. The government team explained that health care is the responsibility of Osakidetza, that it would continue to provide the service, that it would not be diminished, and that there would be a prior coordination meeting. Now, after the withdrawal of this unit, it still has eight attached to the city, one of which is a mobile ICU. That is, there is one less, according to the opposition. And also delays in the service that have caused discomfort among the firefighters and the Bilbao Police, who have complained internally because they are forced to perform “sanitary functions.”
Now they must call 112 to request assistance, which can be reached “from anywhere in the Basque Country.” For example, a municipal police officer reported to the person in charge of him that on the night of January 17 there was a fight between two people. They requested two ambulances but only one of them arrived an hour later, while the other victim had to be transferred to some friends because she already had symptoms of hypothermia. The agents also requested the presence of an ambulance for an anxiety attack and SOS Deiak reported that there was not and that they attend to the person in the patrol car.
The firefighters themselves are preparing a complaint in which they warn of delays of up to 40 minutes in the arrival of the ambulances. They warn in a letter that there are “dozens of interventions in which an ambulance is necessary and essential, but it has arrived unacceptably late or has not arrived. The 112 has given us long and we have even been asked to carry out the health assessment, when we are not prepared”, and request that “this unbearable and unacceptable situation be corrected”. The PP has requested an appearance that was held this morning at City Hall.
The opposition believes that the elimination of the municipal ambulance is a mistake. The popular mayor Carlos García explained that there are fewer ambulances per inhabitant than recommended by the WHO and that delays are frequent and that these are causing complaints from firefighters and the Police. The mayor explained that on May 14, police officers had to transfer a baby and his mother to Basurto themselves in a police car because the ambulance did not arrive. The mayor of Elkarrekin Podemos Xabier Jiménez explained that last week there was a rescue in the estuary by firefighter divers without an ambulance being on the shore as required by protocol. The councilor explained that since the disappearance of the municipal ambulance, firefighters have had to carry out 307 ‘impedium housing’ emergencies or rescue people from homes and that the ambulance has arrived more than 6 minutes late or that, directly, it has not arrived to the interventions in 60% of the cases, according to a report that the head of operations has sent to the Civil Protection area. “The decision to eliminate the ambulance has deprived them of a useful tool and endangers the integrity of people and workers.” From EH Bildu, Asier Gónzalez has also censured that “importance is downplayed” to the delays by the municipal government team. On the other hand, the mayor of EH Bildu has registered that ambulances are also necessary elements from an occupational risk prevention point of view.
“Professional and appropriate” treatment
The Councilor for Security, Amaia Arregi, has assured that there are now more interventions by the Municipal Police and firefighters with health care than before: from January 16 until now, she assures, the Police have acted on 904 occasions together with health resources and the firefighters in 307, while in the same period of 2021 the Police did it on 739 occasions and the firefighters on 157 occasions. “From the data it can be seen that the service is perfectly managed and coordinated with Osakidetza and interventions with healthcare have even increased,” she defended. “The health competence corresponds to Osakidetza, and the neighbors receive a professional and correct treatment, as it could not be otherwise”, she explained.
The mayor of Human Resources, Gonzalo Olabarria, has stated that in his department they have not received any complaints and has reiterated that they are not going to re-establish the service, although he has admitted that there may have been some “coordination problems, which are not the same as incoordination”. The director of Civil Protection, Andoni Oleagordia, has assured that the Department is aware of some cases that are being analyzed, “although very few.” He has defended that the ambulances are “a service that works very well coordinated by doctors and technicians”, but that something else is “the feeling of delay and that there is a lack of coordination”. According to him, this week there will be a technical meeting with Osakidetza. “We have to gear all that, we are on top and wanting to improve.”