It was with "surprise" that the PS Algarve said it learned of the closure of the Lagos Convalescent Continued Care Unit, operating at the Hospital de São Gonçalo de Lagos – HPP Algarve, since 2008.
The decision of ARS Algarve to terminate the contract for the operation of the aforementioned Unit «reduces the installed capacity of the Continued Care Network in the Algarve by 11 beds, and reveals the poor attention that ARS Algarve and the CA dos Hospitais have given to the long-term care in the region,” accuse the socialists.
Other examples pointed out by PS Algarve are «the closure, during 2012, of the 20 beds of Continuing Care for Convalescence operating at the Loulé Health Centre, under the responsibility of the Hospital Faro, EPE, and its subsequent reopening in 2013, in the same place, without any kind of justification and the reduction of hospital referral for Continuing Care in 2012 by 17.5%» .
The Socialists add that "today the Algarve only has 69 beds for convalescence, whereas in 2011 it had 80 beds in this type of integrated continuous care inpatient units."
Last week, ARS Algarve had announced that the Algarve is «the region of the country that responds, in the area of Integrated Continuous Care, to a greater percentage of its population, especially in users over 65 years old», citing data of the implementation and monitoring report of the National Network of Integrated Continued Care, released earlier this month by the Central Administration of the Health System.
According to ARS, «the percentage of the Algarve region is actually about two and a half times higher than the national average».
Figures that may now be affected by the closure of the Lagos Convalescent Continuing Care Unit, a decision taken by the Ministry of Health in agreement with the ARS Algarve and the Board of Directors of Centro Hospitalar do Algarve, which the Algarve PS considers to be «harmful to interests of the elderly and dependent population of the Algarve, and in particular of the Algarve residents in the Barlavento area».
«The decision taken is not understood and the criteria underlying it are not known, since the Lagos Convalescent Unit was guided by its good functioning», wonders António Eusébio, president of PS Algarve.
Closing the Lagos Convalescent Unit “is a bad option given that it provided adequate health care to the needs of the citizens interned there and at values well below those that the State will support with the permanence of users in hospitals. The daily charges at the Lagos Unit are at least about a third of the daily charge in hospitals», he adds.
Also, the candidacy of socialist Joaquina Matos for the Chamber of Lagos yesterday, in a statement, repudiated this decision "given the need for the existence of a Unit of this type that can support the populations."
Joaquina Matos said he hopes that «the guardianship urgently finds an alternative solution that meets the needs of the elderly and dependent population».
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