The new Health Center in Portimão opened this Friday, but it operated at half-gasp, causing some discomfort among users and professionals.
Despite today being announced as the opening day of the new structure, the truth is that this afternoon, as the Sul Informação he found that there was still a lot of equipment to assemble – packed and waiting in the building's garage -, while workers put the finishing touches, assembling the signs, for example.
Martins dos Santos, president of the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve, was this afternoon at the Health Centre, accompanied by the member of the administration Miguel Madeira, and other officials, to find out about the progress of the move to the new facilities.
One of the two bodies in the building of the new Health Centre, which houses a UCC, physiotherapy and other services, ended up being closed at 15:00 pm, according to a notice that could be read on one of the access doors.
O Sul Informação he found that it is expected that by next Monday, May 28th, everything will be fully operational, taking advantage of the weekend to make the necessary adjustments.
Finally, the car park and the exterior access to the Health Centre, which is the responsibility of the Municipality of Portimão, will continue. The space, although usable, remains on unpaved earth, with the wind that is felt this afternoon raising great clouds of dust.
The new Health Center in Portimão, which has 8800 square meters, 70 offices and was designed to serve around 50 users of the municipality, represents an investment of 6,7 million euros, co-financed 50 percent by community funds.
The work began in December 2007 and was only completed more than four years later, in January of this year, after having been stopped for nearly a year due to the insolvency of the contracting company. In 2010, ARS was obliged to take administrative possession of the work, having then opened a new public tender for the completion of the building.
The former facilities of the Health Centre, located next to the new structure, were already considered small for the needs. The premises were leased to Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Portimão, costing more than 10 thousand euros per month.
The date for the official opening of the new Health Center has not yet been set.
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