The Government is "studying the feasibility of eventually separating" the hospitals in Portimão, Lagos and Faro, thus putting an end to the model of the Algarve Hospital Center (CHA), said today, in Portimão, the Secretary of State for Health.
Manuel Delgado, who was speaking to journalists after the inauguration of a Family Health Unit at the Health Center of Portimão, explained that the Government, "during this year", has been "observing, analyzing, the advantages and disadvantages of this model". CHA, as well as «hearing the opinion of both professionals, mayors, and health entities that move here in the Algarve region».
And “the conclusion we are reaching is that, perhaps, this model will be exhausted, that is, it has not given the expected contributions in terms of boosting hospital activity, greater efficiency, better response to citizens”.
The possibility of a new separation between the hospitals of Portimão and Lagos (possibly returning to the previous model of the Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento) and that of Faro, perhaps with the model of Central University Hospital, was announced last week by the president of the Algarve Regional Health Administration (ARS).
«The proposal that we are developing to present to the Minister is to create the Central University Hospital of the Algarve in Faro and a hospital center in Portimão», said João Moura Reis, stressing that the process is part of the strategy of reorganization of the National Health Service that is underway in the region.
If this proposal is accepted by the tutelage, the separation should take place, according to the president of the ARS, later this year.
But the Secretary of State for Health is more cautious. Manuel Delgado added that there is still no deadline to make a decision, since, he argued, "the change has to be done calmly and thoughtfully."
If the extinction of the CHA goes ahead, he added, "it will always imply a clear definition of the competencies of each hospital unit, not in the sense of each one fighting for itself, in a pure and tough competitive process, but in a process of complementarity and cooperation between the units'.
«What we want is that the populations of the Algarve, both those who live here and those who transit here temporarily – and we must not forget the tourist importance that this region has, as a showcase for the country abroad», to be able to obtain in the Algarve «responses 90 to 95% of hospital needs», said the official.
“It is clear that there are some highly differentiated specialties that we cannot have scattered across the country. But the goal is to move towards a response model that avoids traveling outside the Algarve as much as possible. The process is done through complementarity», stressed Manuel Delgado.
Present at the inauguration of the new USF, the mayor of Portimão expressed her confidence in the «new dynamics of the Ministry of Health», but hoped that the situation of the Algarve hospitals would be clarified and improved quickly, since «it is the image of the country that is in deficit».
The question of the future of CHA is very present in the one-day visit that the Secretary of State is making today to the Algarve, since this morning, right after the inauguration of the USF, a working meeting took place at the hospital in Portimão and, after closing the program, there will be another one in the hospital of Faro.
The government official also spoke of the recurring difficulty in hiring doctors for the Algarve region. Manuel Delgado admitted that, despite the current Government having given the boards of directors the possibility of opening tenders in the medical area and beyond, the truth is that the problem lies in the «difficulty we have in attracting resources for the Algarve, whether doctors, or in other technical areas of health as well”.
Therefore, he spoke again about the special legislation being created by the Ministry of Health «to create additional incentives for people to come to the Algarve». «What happens in the Algarve is that the competitions are open, for medical and surgical specialties, but the end is reached and they are deserted, or, in seven places, a candidate appears and this makes stabilization impossible. As a result, hospitals and health services are forced to hire companies, which is the worst thing you can do and what we don't want,” he said.
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