The Minister of Health guaranteed, this Friday, in the discussion in general of the State Budget for 2022, that the construction of the Central Hospital of the Algarve is a “political commitment that we will honour”, even if “it takes longer than what we wanted”. ». Even so, the governor's guarantee did not satisfy the PSD deputies elected by the circle of Faro, who regret the absence of a timetable for the construction of the infrastructure, which they say is a “mirage”.
The Algarve social-democratic deputies, in a note sent to the newsrooms, «regret the position of the Government, and of the Minister of Health in particular, in the debate on the State Budget for 2022 in general, by completely removing the construction of the new Central Hospital of the Algarve».
For the PSD, «if there were any doubts, today [Friday] in Parliament, it was clear that the Executive has no planned plan for carrying out this strategic work for the district of Faro».
However, what Marta Temido said, in response to a question from PSD deputy Pedro Melo Lopes, was that this is a “political commitment that we will honor, as we have honored the others, even if it takes longer than we wanted”.
The Minister of Health recalled that the work “had the tender suspended in 2011 and, since 2011, several governments have passed and have not looked at the process again, but we have looked at the process again”.
According to Marta Temido, the Government is trying to understand, «considering the investment made in the preparation [of the project], considering the maintenance of the public interest in its construction and considering a specific legal framework for a non-award decision», whether or not «it is feasible the use of the process", which he says is "a complex legal work".
But, for the deputies Luís Gomes, Rui Cristina and Ofélia Ramos, the clarification of the minister was not satisfactory and, in a note sent to the newsrooms, they regret that, «as other works begin to be carried out (such as the case of the Hospital do Seixal), the Hospital Central do Algarve continues without even having a calendar, which can bring some hope to the Algarve population, long ignored by successive governments of the Socialist Party».
Rui Cristina, in Parliament, recalled that «the Algarve Central Hospital has been a promise for 19 years and a promise systematically reiterated by the Socialist Party. But in 2016 it stopped being a priority. Four years later, Marta Temido stated that it was necessary to proceed as soon as possible with the work, but a few months later she forgot to put the unit in the State Budget for 2021».
For the deputy, «this is a Budget that knows little. With little ambition, little vision, little responsibility. It does not respond to the structural problems of the sector, it does not present strategic solutions for greater organization and sustainability of the SNS. It is, after all, another make-believe budget, far from being equal to the Portuguese».
The PSD deputies elected by the Algarve guarantee that the new Central Hospital is a topic that “they will not be forgotten. It is urgent that the construction of the Central Hospital of the Algarve advances and that it is accompanied by a reinforcement of means, technical and human, also in the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve, whose needs have been increasingly notorious», they conclude.
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