The State Budget for 2024 plans to launch “tenders” for the Algarve Central Hospital and the Regional Oncology Center next year.
The inclusion of this work in the State Budget can be seen as another step towards its completion, although it is not specified what type of competitions are planned to be launched.
The expectation about the construction of the Algarve Central Hospital, a project that has been claimed for at least two decades and which began in 2002, during the government of Durão Barroso, resurfaced in September 2022, when the former Minister of Health Marta Temido signed an order which relaunched the construction process.
With Temido out of office, Manuel Pizarro, current minister, has already committed, on more than one occasion, to the advancement of this infrastructure, seen as essential for the region.
Last January, the governor was in the Algarve, having then promised that the competition for the work of the Central Hospital of the Algarve would be launched in 2023.
On that occasion, Manuel Pizarro announced not only the constitution of the technical team to conduct the competition to launch the work on the new Algarve Central Hospital, as required by law, but also the commission to monitor the process, in this case, «a political option» .
The project team for “the study and preparation for the launch of a new public-private partnership for the construction” of the hospital has already been formed and is even led by a former Secretary of State for Health.
This is Francisco Ramos who also became the first coordinator of the task force for vaccination against Covid-19.
The team's number two is Rui Lourenço, doctor, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Algarve and former president of the Algarve Regional Health Administration (ARS).
The team also includes another Algarvean, Josélia Gonçalves, current vice-president of the ARS, but only as an alternate member.
The mission of this team is to prepare the “study process” and the “launch of the study”, as well as “preparation for the launch of a new public-private partnership for the construction of the new Algarve Central Hospital”.
As for the Reference Oncology Center, the process seems to be a little more advanced.
In addition to having already signed a protocol for the provision of land for the location of this infrastructure, in Parque das Cidades, the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve has also awarded the execution projects and specialties, taking another step towards the completion of this project.
The person who will no longer see the progress of this project is Ana Varges Gomes who, despite still being the president of the CHUA Board of Directors, is leaving her position.
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