The Municipality of Alcoutim wants to see the Vaqueiros Health Extension reopened and has already suggested to the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve (ARSA) alternative spaces to install the unit. The inadequacy of the space was one of the obstacles placed by the public institute to the reactivation of the Alcoutim Health Center pole, as well as the need for a dedicated Internet connection with greater capacity.
The mayor of Alcoutim Osvaldo Gonçalves is willing and willing to find a solution, using the means of the local authority. In the case of the building to house the Health Extension, a survey was carried out and identified "two or three spaces" that have the minimum requirements to house the health unit, conditions that the building that previously housed it will not have.
With regard to the Internet connection and computerization of the post, there is also availability to co-finance the health extension. ARSA requires a dedicated connection, which allows the Health Extension to be connected to the integrated data system used by all health units under its responsibility and by the Hospital de Faro, which doesn't come cheap. "But if we already bear so many burdens with health, we can invest another 5 or 10 thousand euros," said the mayor.
Osvaldo Gonçalves is the guest of the radio program «Impressões», organized jointly by the Sul Informação and by Rádio Universitária do Algarve RUA FM (102.7 FM). In the program, which will air this Wednesday at 19 pm, the new Alcoutenejo mayor talks about the ideas he has for the council and themes that have stirred up the present time, such as the closing of Health Extensions.
“This was the first hot potato I received. I, without knowing the process, received the news at the same time as everyone else, when it seems to me that the mayors should have information first», he considered.
after having participated at a demonstration in Faro against the closure of health facilities, Osvaldo Gonçalves waited for a contact from ARSA, who ended up not coming. «This feedback never came, and if Mohammed doesn't go To the mountain, the mountain comes to Mohammed», he illustrated.
“In a meeting I had with the president of ARSA in the meantime, I learned that a working group had been created to try to solve this problem. That day I was included in the work group», he revealed, without hiding that he found it strange not to have been immediately called to join it.
At the meeting, ARSA said that the Health Extension could not reopen where it used to be. «There has already been a survey in the posts now closed – Vaqueiros, Azinhal and Odeleite – and that the reopening of each one is being re-evaluated. The one in Vaqueiros is the one with the greatest logistical difficulties», he revealed
Osvaldo Gonçalves immediately promoted an assessment of the existing spaces and costs, so that the eventual reopening of the Health Extension could happen at the same time as those of Azinhal and Odeleite. Still, everything depends on ARSA and the Ministry of Health, which is not willing to invest more than "one hundred thousand euros, for the three units."
Spending some money to ensure the service is reactivated is not a problem for Alcoutim, a municipality that has its bills up to date. “We proposed that right away, when they told us that the post was being closed down because it didn't have an Internet connection and conditions. We said right away that we could put up with it,” he said.
Osvaldo Gonçalves says he is "convinced" that there will be a solution and that the closing of the Vaqueiros Health Extension is reversible. "We entered a demand that will last a few months and I want to believe that this will still be possible", he considered.
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