Paid parking at the hospital in Portimão will yield 10 euros a month for Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento Algarvio, revealed the chairman of the Board of Directors of CHBA.
José Ramos was speaking to journalists after the protest demonstration against the creation of paid parking, which this morning brought together less than 30 people (and six police officers) at the door of the CHBA unit in Portimão.
The administrator admitted that the decision to charge parking "may not be convenient, nor satisfactory for most users", but repeated the need to "discipline the abusive use" of the park. "We are sure that there is abusive use, by people who use the park and not to come to the hospital," he stressed.
José Ramos did not want to explain what misuse he was referring to, but the Sul Informação you know that these are, for example, companies from the former Retail Park, which use the hospital parking lot to pick up their employees to transport them by bus to other stores outside the county, leaving their cars parked there for long hours during the day.
The chairman of the CHBA Board also stressed that, although he understands protests against the payment as a “natural reaction”, it is “a measure to maintain”. “There is a contract signed with the concessionaire company, chosen after an international tender, and we cannot now tell them that everything is void”.
As for the start of payment, everything indicates that, once the "technical issues" have been resolved, it will take place in the next monday, april 8th.
Outside, in the parking lots, while the group of close to thirty people demonstrated, work continued to put the park's electronic system into operation.
João Vasconcelos, from the Left Block and the Hospital's User Committee, holding a poster that read “Paid parking is equal to legalized theft!”, explained that “when people are already being penalized with user fees, with the decrease of the Vai e Vem buses, now this rate falls on them, that will be dear to anyone who comes to an appointment, to an emergency or to visit a family member».
Furthermore, he stressed, because the Hospital do Barlavento is located practically on the outskirts of the city, and “there is no park or free place around here where people can park”.
Another element of the Commission of Users pointed out that, if the administration created exceptions for employees – doctors, nurses, assistants, administrative staff -, the truth is that other people who work at the hospital are not entitled to free parking. This is the case of security guards from the Securitas company or employees of cafeterias and cafeterias, who are exploited by outside companies.
"We're going to fight until the Board of Directors turns back!", guaranteed João Vasconcelos.
As for the fact that the protest attracted so few people, a lady from the Commission of Users said it was “regrettable that no more people are here, because this touches everyone. The city has 50 thousand inhabitants, but we are only here half a dozen protesting».
With or without protests, if the work in progress goes well, parking at Hospital do Barlavento, in Portimão, will start to be paid on Monday, April 8th.
However, this morning, a hundred meters from the demonstration against payment of parking, next to the entrance door for external consultations, another protest was taking place, this time bringing together close to a hundred nurses, against the situation they consider discriminatory of the professionals with individual employment contracts.
In the end, protesters from one protest after another gathered, all under the watchful eyes of PSP agents, users and journalists.
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