Portugal's National Institute for Medical Emergency suffered a computer system failure across its urgent dispatch centers on Thursday morning, forcing operators to switch to manual contingency procedures for more than two hours.
The technical outage was detected at approximately 9:40 am and was fully resolved by 12:15 pm, the emergency medical agency confirmed. Officials stated that emergency response services and patient referrals operated without interruption throughout the disruption.
The National Institute for Medical Emergency, known as INEM, oversees emergency health services across mainland Portugal. Its Urgent Patient Orientation Centers, or CODU, handle emergency calls redirected from the national emergency number 112, triaging patient needs and dispatching medical vehicles and ambulances.
In a statement issued after normal service resumed, INEM said technical teams worked alongside the system supplier to restore operations and investigate what caused the failure. An official source from the institute told news outlet Correio da Manha that the glitch affected the IT system supporting dispatch center activities, specifically the digital registration and management of ongoing emergency incidents.
The official added that emergency call reception and the dispatching of medical resources remained active through fallback procedures. Technical teams returned the dispatch centers to full operation at 12:15 pm, and the institute stated it is continuing technical evaluations to identify the root cause while maintaining continuous monitoring of the system.
Rising Demand for Emergency Services
The technical disruption occurred amid record call volumes for Portugal's emergency medical dispatch centers. During 2025, CODU centers answered an average of 4,539 calls per day, reaching a total of 1,656,891 calls over the course of the year.
Call numbers have increased further in 2026. The agency recorded 153,233 calls in July 2026 alone, marking a 7.7 percent increase compared to the same month in 2025 and setting the highest monthly total of the year so far.
Staffing Changes for Emergency Triage
Alongside the technical recovery, INEM announced a change in how emergency phone lines are staffed. Registered nurses will now take over answering and triaging calls transferred to INEM from the SNS 24 health line, a role previously carried out by pre-hospital emergency technicians.
The SNS 24 hotline serves as Portugal's primary national health advice line. INEM informed news agency Lusa that the nurses received specialized preparation and training prior to assuming the role. The institute said the change is designed to better adapt emergency responses to individual clinical situations and optimize available medical resources.
