The «decision has been made» and the radiotherapy services «will remain in the Algarve». The guarantee was left this Thursday, June 9, by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA).
The controversy over the transfer of radiotherapy to a clinic in Seville made a lot of ink flow in the last few days.
The PSD accused CHUA of having awarded the service to a Spanish clinic, a fact that the administration of Algarve hospitals denied from the beginning, claiming that there was still no final decision.
Today, in statements to journalists, on the sidelines of a visit by the Secretary of State for Health to the Hospital de Faro, Ana Varges Gomes announced that this same decision was taken this Thursday morning.
«Patients will undergo radiotherapy in the Algarve. The process was only dispatched today – public tenders have confidential documentation that only reaches us at the end of the tender», justified the president of the CHUA Board of Directors.
Asked by journalists whether the Seville clinic had dropped the process, Ana Varges Gomes did not respond.
“It was a clear procedure”, he defended. "There was no problem: there are 4,5 million at stake, which requires an international competition and that's what we did", he added.
According to Ana Varges Gomes, patients «would always be treated in the place where they had the best safety, best comfort and best possible treatment, which is why we fought for a Centro Oncológico do Sul».
The chairman of the Board of Directors did not spare criticism of the “political exploitation” that this case motivated – with the PSD at the head.
"If there is a tender in progress, if it has not yet ended, if only the Board of Directors is responsible for awarding...", he said.
Moreover, it was the PSD itself, shortly before Ana Varges Gomes’ statements, who sent a statement to the newsrooms to report that the Spanish operator had withdrawn from the process, a fact that the president of the CHUA Board of Directors did not confirm or deny. .
Lacerda Sales, Assistant Secretary of State and Health, also criticized those who made politics in a "too serious matter".
“We don't do politics on this subject – much less politics on social networks”, he concluded.
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