Patients have already started to arrive at the old Hospital Santa Maria in Faro

By Pedro Lemos • January 26, 2021 - 9:30

This is a partnership between the University Hospital Center of the Algarve and two private entities

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The former Santa Maria Hospital, in Faro, started receiving, this Monday, January 25th, the first non-Covid patients. São Gonçalo de Lagos will also receive the first inpatients in a short time, in a measure that will allow to expand the space for those infected with the new coronavirus, in public hospitals in Faro and Portimão.

Closed since 2018, Hospital Santa Maria, owned by the Lusíadas Group, has now reopened, in an agreement between the Hospital and University Center of the Algarve (CHUA) and this private entity. On the very first day, six patients arrived, mainly transferred from the Medicine Department 1 of the Hospital de Faro. The total capacity is 28 beds.

The opening session of Hospital Santa Maria as a response to non-Covid patients was attended by Ana Castro, chairman of the Board of Directors of CHUA, Paulo Neves, member, as well as Paulo Morgado, president of the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve.

To the journalists, Ana Castro thanked the Chamber of Faro and to Civil Protection for its prompt help in "making this hospital operational in less than a week."

“The effort was made at the right time: we anticipate that we may have an increase in admissions for Covid-19 in the coming days, but we are not yet in extremis», considered the person in charge.

In fact, the decision to open this new space for non-Covid internment is due to «a totally new situation to which we have to adapt: the growth in the number of cases in the region that need internment», explained Paulo Morgado, to the journalists.

In addition to Hospital Santa Maria, São Gonçalo de Lagos (HPA Saúde Group) should open today to receive patients who do not have Covid-19, with the maximum capacity being 26 inpatients.

Ana Castro – Photo: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação

In this case, in addition to inpatient services, the operating room will also be transferred to the NHS for outpatient surgery for patients who are not infected with the new coronavirus.

If, at Hospital Santa Maria, there have already been six patients arriving, in Lagos "we still don't know how many beds we are going to occupy immediately", said Paulo Morgado.

What is certain is that, in both units, employees will be assigned to CHUA working. But human resources are indeed an issue.

“We have already hired all the professionals who were in the market and made more appeals for everyone who can come and work with us because we are available. The team that will ensure healthcare in these new spaces is made up of doctors, nurses and hospital assistants from CHUA», explained Ana Castro.

Basically, he concluded, these new spaces, in Faro and Lagos, "will allow us to take non-Covid patients out of hospitals and reorganize the space so that we have more capacity to receive Covid patients." Currently, there are 247 people hospitalized in the region, infected with the new coronavirus.

Photos: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação