Porto Puts Five Public Defibrillators on Its Streets and Will Train Neighbours to Use Them: Where They Are, and What to Do if Someone Collapses
Porto has installed public defibrillators on the Aliados, in Campinas, Batalha, Marquês and Ribeira, and will train nearby residents, workers and volunteers to use them. What the law says about using an AED, and INEM's steps for bystanders.
Porto has put its first five public-access defibrillators on the street, and the city council says it will train people who live and work near them to use them. The devices went in on Friday 16 October, World Cardiac Arrest Day. That evening the council also ran a 12-hour open training session in basic life support on the Praça do General Humberto Delgado, in front of the City Hall.
The council gives one reason for the scheme. In Portugal, it says, only 26 percent of cardiac arrests that someone witnesses get resuscitation from a bystander before help arrives.
Where the five defibrillators are
The council says it chose busy places where emergency vehicles have a harder time getting through:
- Avenida dos Aliados;
- Bairro das Campinas;
- Praça da Batalha;
- Praça do Marquês;
- Praça da Ribeira.
An automated external defibrillator (AED; in Portuguese, desfibrilhador automático externo or DAE) is a portable device that checks the heart's rhythm through pads placed on the chest. It gives an electric shock only if the rhythm calls for one, and it talks the user through each step.
Who will be trained
The mayor, Pedro Duarte, said the council will give "specific training to people who work or live nearby" and "to anyone who volunteers". According to the council, the network it is building will take in people from the tourism sector and council staff trained in basic life support and AED use.
The 16 October session, called "Porto Reanima", was run with the Porto branch of the Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa (Portuguese Red Cross) and the Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (INEM, the National Institute for Medical Emergency). The council says several hundred people of all ages took part. The city's Sapadores Bombeiros fire regiment, the University of Porto's medical school, the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences and the Porto nursing and health schools supported it.
What is not known yet: the council's announcement gives no sign-up link, dates or language for the volunteer training. If you live or work near one of the five sites and want to join, watch the council's news page at porto.pt.
Why the training matters: the law on using an AED
In Portugal, public defibrillators are not a free-for-all. Decree-Law 188/2009, as amended in 2012, sets the rules:
- non-doctors may use an AED outside hospital only "under medical supervision" and within an AED programme (Article 3);
- installing and using AEDs in places open to the public requires a licence (Article 4);
- the person using one must call INEM on 112, or have someone else call, if possible before using the device (Article 3).
The 2012 amendment, Decree-Law 184/2012, made AEDs compulsory in:
- large shops and shopping centres;
- airports and commercial ports;
- train, metro and coach stations with more than 10,000 passengers a day;
- sports and leisure venues holding more than 5,000 people.
That is why Porto is pairing its street devices with a trained local network, rather than simply putting boxes on the wall.
INEM says the locations of registered AEDs are shared with its emergency dispatch centres. They are also shown in the INEM mobile app, under a project the institute completed in 2023.
If someone collapses in front of you
INEM's own advice for bystanders, updated this year in line with the European Resuscitation Council's 2025 guidelines, runs as follows:
- Make sure the place is safe for you.
- Gently shake the person's shoulders and call out to them.
- If they do not respond, call 112 straight away and put the phone on speaker. The INEM professional on the line will help you check whether the person is breathing and tell you what to do next.
- If they are not breathing and you are trained as part of an AED programme, switch on the AED and follow its instructions.
- If not, start chest compressions. Place your hands one on top of the other in the middle of the chest and press down hard, 30 times, at 100 to 120 a minute. Then give two rescue breaths, and keep repeating 30 compressions and two breaths. If you cannot give breaths, do compressions only.
- Keep going until help arrives, the person recovers or you can no longer continue.
Learning the basics online
INEM runs a distance-learning platform at aprender.inem.pt. Its section for citizens includes a course called "Reanimar com o INEM" (Resuscitate with INEM), and the 2025 guideline update is in its resuscitation section. Its step-by-step bystander advice is on the INEM website. Both are in Portuguese.
INEM now has an emergency ambulance agreement with every fire brigade in the country. In September, cardiologists ran free heart-risk checks in pharmacies. For the rest of the week in the city, see the Porto Brief.
