The "ABC Loulé Active Life", dedicated to the active aging and who will be born in Vilamoura, it will have a network that will take this infrastructure's specialized healthcare services to the Algarve and Alentejo, also wanting to reach neighboring Andalusia. The announcement was made this Friday, May 7th, by Nuno Marques, at the conference “What is Europe doing for the Health of Europeans?“, promoted by the European Center Direct of CCDR Algarve.
The president of the Algarve Biomedical Center (ABC) added that the region will host, this May, the first meeting of the “European Reference Centers of Portugal for Active Aging”.
Nuno Marques explained that, while the main building, in Vilamoura, does not begin to be built, which will not happen until 2022, ABC will proceed with a pilot project within the scope of this network in the municipalities of Albufeira and Loulé.
This project consists of the use of «technologies that are used for movement and cardiorespiratory kinetics for high competition athletes», but now applied to the general population
The president of ABC hopes to be, next month, "on the ground starting to assemble everything" under this pilot project on Active Aging.
The project is intended to “correct people's weaknesses, improving their quality of life”, and is aimed at “selected patients with cardiovascular or osteoarticular pathology”.
“ABC Loulé Active Life” «intends to use something that is key, which is to have a main building where major assessments and major interventions are carried out, in Vilamoura, and then a network, allowing these applications to be carried out in all municipalities in the Algarve region and even in Alentejo», said Nuno Marques in his speech at the conference.
It asserts itself as a "proximity project with the population" that aims to "change, for the first time in European terms, in three areas together: the osteoarticular, cardiac and respiratory areas that, until now, were being treated only under the individual form. Patients do not have just one thing, but several, and we need to improve these indicators».
«The idea is for the project to reach all areas of the Algarve, creating differentiation, fighting interiority, creating jobs in all municipalities and providing a response to the population», highlighted Nuno Marques.
In addition to the Algarve, the project will also reach the Alentejo region, with some contacts already being established, and also «who knows, in a short time, to Andalusia».
With the neighboring Spanish region, "a real cross-border pole can be established, as we are well aware that they have an active aging center there too, placed on the network, and with which we have been working on research".
The “ABC Loulé Active Life” project, globally, has a budget of 21 million euros, with 4,8 million for the construction of the building in Vilamoura, 5,8 million for the purchase of equipment for the Algarve, 2,4 million in equipment for the Alentejo and XNUMX million for the operationalization of the project over three years.
The problem is that this ABC project still does not have guaranteed community financing. José Apolinário, president of CCDR Algarve, told the Sul Informação that such funding may come from the Recovery and Resilience Plan or from the new European program, recently approved and aimed specifically at investments in Health, called “EU for Health”.
Proving the importance and interest that its “ABC Loulé Active Life” is arousing, the Algarve Biomedical Center will participate, on 16 and 17 May, in Vilamoura, in the first meeting of the “European Reference Centers of Portugal for Active Aging” .
On this occasion, the national centers of Porto, Lisbon, Coimbra and Faro they will “define a national strategic plan for active aging to be implemented in the short term”.
On the other hand, in addition to the national network, the project aims to integrate an international network, with ABC already working with several European centers.
"These projects, important for the region, will diversify the economy, creating jobs in the low season, either in coastal areas or in the interior, leading to a fight against the demographic desertification of the interior," stressed the president of the ABC, in conclusion.
Comments