Pedro Nunes, chairman of the Board of Directors of Centro Hospitalar do Algarve (CHA), assured in statements to Sul Informação, that «the patients [of Multiple Sclerosis] of Barlavento will have, as soon as possible, an appointment in Portimão».
To this end, he added, "it is necessary to reorganize the professional life of Neurologists in Faro and clear appointments in Faro», stressing that the CHA «will try to ensure equal access, wherever the patient lives in the Algarve».
However, Pedro Nunes also said, “while this is not possible, the follow-up [of patients with Multiple Sclerosis] will be ensured by the Unit of Faro, in overload with the markings already existing in that Unit».
The chairman of the CHA Board of Directors thus responded to the questions posed by the Sul Informação, following the complaint made by our newspaper that, after the departure of one of the two doctors which provided the Neurology service at the Hospital de Portimão, around a hundred Multiple Sclerosis patients have now been left unsupervised for their chronic disease in Barlavento, being forced to move to Faro.
Pedro Nunes also said that «CHAlgarve's Neurology Service [which includes hospitals in Faro and Portimão] has 8 doctors in total, and one of these professionals is permanently at the Portimão Unit”, a situation that only happens since the departure of neurologist Edmeia Monteiro.
This Neurology Service «provides support to around 260 multiple sclerosis patients: 100 patients in Portimão and 160 patients in Faro», added the person in charge.
As for the doctor's departure, Pedro Nunes, in his response, confirmed that "Dr. Edmeia Monteiro requested termination of the contract, which to date no other doctor has done."
Regarding the reasons for the departure of a doctor who Multiple Sclerosis patients say has always been available to assist them, even outside normal office hours, the chairman of the Board replied: «You will have to ask this question to Dr. Edmeia . CHAlgarve, EPE, did not require anything, nor did it change anything to its operating scheme. They probably offered him, in the private sector, better conditions than those he had in the public. The public hospital is not able to compete economically with the private sector, it can only rely on the ethical and responsible sense of its professionals».
Finishing your answer to the five questions posed by the Sul Informação, Pedro Nunes put a post scriptum where, once again, he criticized the medical profession, of which, curiously, he was already president: «PS – CHAlgarve draws attention to the fact that Portuguese legislation does not allow forcing doctors to work where they do not want to or pay- to them all that they long for».
However, tonight, at 21 pm, Pedro Nunes will be in Portimão to debate «The State of Health in the Barlavento Algarvio», with Luís Batalau, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento (now extinct and integrated into the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve), with João Moura Reis, new chairman of the Board of Directors of the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve, and Ulisses Brito, President of the District Council of the Medical Association.
The debate, promoted by the association «Teia d'Ideias», will take place in the Small Auditorium of TEMPO – Municipal Theater of Portimão, with free admission.
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