The construction work on the Algarve Oncological Center will advance along the lines that were initially planned and independently of the construction contract for the new Algarve Central Hospital, despite two opinions from public entities in the health sector that defend the integration of this structure into the work of the future hospital, Manuel Pizarro, Minister of Health, assured today, on the sidelines of a visit to the Olhão Health Center.
Following a complaint made by Cristóvão Norte, president of the PSD/Algarve, who reported negative opinions from the Algarve Regional Health Administration and the commission that coordinates the studies of the new central hospital in the Algarve, the minister assured that the Government plans have not changed and that the opinions “do not invalidate the progress of these works separately”.
«Just read the State Budget report that we presented in the Assembly of the Republic. What we assume is that, in 2024, the competition will be launched for the work on the Oncology Center and for the work on the new central hospital», assured Manuel Pizarro.
«They are two distinct works. In one case, the Hospital Central do Algarve, it will be a Public-Private Partnership for construction and maintenance. In the other case, that of the Oncological Center, it is a project that will be launched by the administration of the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Algarve (CHUA)», reinforced the member of the Government.
It was precisely this investment of 14 million euros, 60% reimbursed by European funds from Algarve 2030, that Cristóvão Norte claimed would be at risk of being lost, despite the promises made by the Government and the fact that it had recently been awarded by CHUA to carry out execution and specialty projects for the Southern Reference Oncological Center.
However, claims the former PSD deputy, the process «threatens to turn into an absurd Kafkaesque plot, such are the complications to which it is subject».
«Absurdly, the Government establishes that a project is to be carried out and it is the same entities that oversee it that prevent the process from progressing! Meanwhile, five million a year is spent sending cancer patients to Spain,” he accuses.
«This project is vital to respond to 1500 patients diagnosed with cancer in the region, ensuring that they can be more quickly diagnosed and treated in the Algarve, putting an end to the ordeal of going to Spain or Lisbon for treatment. (…) Some say that the oncology center should be located within the future hospital, others say that it should be next door. It is urgent to solve this problem», demands Cristóvão Norte.
Manuel Pizarro assures that this is not even on the table, but he does not fail to draw “attention to a point that is also very relevant: it is clear that the Oncology Center must be deeply articulated with the new hospital. It would be incomprehensible if it were otherwise».
«He can and must move forward with a functional program, which will allow him, in the future, to have a virtuous articulation with the new Hospital Central do Algarve», defended the Minister of Health.
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