AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community wants the Ministry of Health to present an “urgent” solution to the functioning problems that affect the Center for Medicine and Rehabilitation of the South, in São Brás de Alportel.
On September 15, AMAL's Intermunicipal Council approved a motion "in defense of an urgent understanding" to resolve the constraints affecting space, a day after the Mayor of São Brás de Alportel Vítor Guerreiro insisted again to the Minister of Health for “a speedy solution to the immense difficulties that the Center for Medicine and Rehabilitation of the South (CMR South) continues to face”.
The motion approved at AMAL “encourages the union of the presidents of the Algarve's municipal councils in the defense of a dignified and adequate future for this health unit, which represents a specialized, differentiated and unique healthcare provision in the south of the country”.
The document demands "that the Ministry of Health definitively presents clear and conclusive measures regarding the new management model to be implemented to ensure the full functioning of the CMR-Sul in the future."
The announcement of the closure of the outpatient service motivated Vítor Guerreiro to present this motion at AMAL entitled "Restore the full functioning of the Center for Medicine and Rehabilitation of the South”, which was approved by all mayors in the region.
AMAL explains in a statement that «the constraints that affect this excellent health unit, which holds international accreditation for organizing its services in accordance with the best worldwide practices, have accumulated since 2013, when the management of the center became the responsibility of the Algarve Regional Health Administration. This change was motivated by the Court of Auditors' refusal to extend the management contract established within the scope of a public-private partnership with GPSaúde – Managing Society of the Centro de Medicina Física e Reabilitação do Sul, SA».
Since then, says AMAL, «CMR Sul has faced serious difficulties that prevent its professionals from guaranteeing the normality of services in accordance with the demanding standards achieved in the past. Over the past three years, the Center has been faced with a lack of professionals, lack of medication for the treatment of inpatients as well as the necessary equipment for the correct treatment of patients».
For the President of AMAL, Jorge Botelho, «it is fundamental for the Algarve to end the daily complications that affect the normal functioning of the Medicine and Rehabilitation Centre, putting into question the health care provision of this unit of excellence in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation, with results above European standards in terms of achieving greater progress in shorter periods of hospitalization. Our population cannot be deprived of access to this care because of a response that is slow in coming from the central government».
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