A British child has died in an Algarve hospital after falling ill while on holiday with his parents.
The 11-month baby lost his fight for life while awaiting a transfer from an intensive care unit at Portimao Hospital to Faro Hospital, a 50-minute drive away.
The youngster was pronounced dead late on Friday after his condition worsened.
The tragedy has led to demands for an investigation in Portugal after it emerged that a medicalised helicopter had to be scrambled to take the youngster to Faro because a lack of specialist staff made a normal transfer by road impossible.
The unnamed child, thought to have fallen ill with bronchitis before medics discovered he had septicaemia, was kept at Portimao Hospital after his condition worsened and died later the same day.
Initial reports, which were later refuted by health chiefs, claimed the child lost his fight for life after waiting to be transferred for six hours due to a lack of specialist staff.
Respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha said medics on the Algarve had initially sought a transfer to Santa Cruz Hospital in Lisbon, a leading cardiac hospital, before the decision to use an air ambulance to take the baby to Faro was made.
The youngster has been described locally only as a "foreign child", and well-placed sources confirmed today he was British and was on holiday with his family.
A spokesman for Portugal's National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), a Ministry of Health agency responsible among other things for providing on-the-scene pre-hospital emergency care and assisting transport of victim to appropriate hospitals, said it had received a request from Portimao Hospital to transport an 11-month-old baby to an intensive care paediatric unit at 2.18pm local time on Friday.
It insisted the child was being "properly accompanied" by the hospital's paediatric teams at the time.
In a statement, it added: "Because Faro Hospital found itself without paediatrics and with the Paediatric Inter-Hospital Transport Ambulance (TIP) inoperative due to the lack of a hospital doctor and TIP Lisbon engaged on another medical emergency job, INEM initiated the necessary procedures with a view to activating the Algarve helicopter.
"This was done at just after 3pm the same day."
The INEM spokesman said the baby suffered a "worsening of its clinical condition which prevented the transfer and led to the medical teams returning to Portimao Hospital around 5.45pm after initiating procedures for the helicopter journey."
The agency added in its statement: "INEM deeply regrets the outcome of this situation and we send our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the baby's family."
A union chief had demanded an investigation into the British child’s hospital death before INEM reacted.
Rui Lazaro, head of the Portuguese union of pre-hospital emergency technicians, said other solutions could have been activated such as the transfer of a specialist medical team to Portimao Hospital by helicopter.
He insisted: "They could have come from Lisbon, or Coimbra or even from Porto.
"Someone from INEM or from the guidance centre for emergency patients must have made that decision not to activate that option.
"We don't know why it occurred and this needs to be properly investigated.
"The appropriate means were not made available in a timely manner."
The child's parents have been offered expert care from psychologists trained in helping people deal with bereavement.
Local reports said the youngster went into cardiac arrest as he was being taken to the air ambulance, with leading Portuguese daily Correio da Manha saying the child had suffered cardiac tamponade or pressure on the heart when blood or fluid builds up in the space between the heart muscle and the heart's outer covering sac.
It can occur due to inflammation of the lining around the heart caused by bacterial infections.
Well-placed sources said the youngster had been put on antibiotics after being diagnosed with bronchitis and was getting better at his holiday accommodation with his family before taking a turn for the worse and being admitted to Portimao Hospital where doctors discovered he had septicaemia.
The source said: "The main problem was that the ambulance that would normally have taken the child to Faro Hospital was inoperative because there was no paediatric emergency physician available.
"It was off-duty for 24 hours."
The union now calling for an investigation into Friday's tragedy has complained about several recent cases of emergency ambulance delays in Portugal.
One involved a 74-year-old man in Tavira near Faro who said waited 52 minutes for an ambulance to be found to help him after suffering a suspected stroke.
Another was a suicide attempt where the union said an ambulance was only sent to the scene an hour and 45 minutes after the initial call and resulted in the person being declared dead.
