After two tenders were deserted, the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA) launched a third so that a Medically Assisted Procreation Center could finally be built, in Faro. The structure should have been in operation since the beginning of the year, but received, this Wednesday, February 22, a new impetus due to a donation from Dieter Morszeck Foundation, from Germany.
This donation, of 1,5 million euros, will support projects considered structural for CHUA, such as the Center for Pediatric Development and Intensive Rehabilitation and the new structure for the creation of Medically Assisted Procreation from scratch.
Speaking to journalists, Ana Varges Gomes, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA), explained that the fact that the Medically Assisted Procreation Center was not yet in operation was due to “limitations of tenders”.
«We expected to have it up and running at the beginning of the year, but the two contests had no competitors. By our will, it would already be open», he considered.
The delay in opening has already led to recent criticisms from the Portuguese Fertility Association itself.
According to Ana Varges Gomes, «there is still no forecast» of when this infrastructure will open, which will be unique in the south of the country.
The Medically Assisted Procreation Center will serve both the Algarve and the Alentejo, and will be the 10th in the whole country (there are four in the North, three in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley and two in the Center region).
The valency will be installed at the Hospital de Faro and «will carry out all the stages, from the collection of gametes to fertilization vitro».
This donation of 1,5 million euros will also support other projects related to pediatrics at CHUA, namely in the «areas of physiotherapy for children with some type of pathology».
It will also allow the Algarve to have «equipment that makes it possible to carry out diagnoses that, until now, were not possible».
The objective, highlighted Ana Varges Gomes, is that «children can complete their therapeutic journey in the Algarve, without having to leave the region».
In this session, Dieter Morszeck, President of the Foundation, stressed "the importance of being able to help children, who are our future".
«With this project, we are going to make some dreams come true and I am very proud to be able to help you», adds the German benefactor, grandson of the founder and former president of the luxury luggage brand Rimowa, who already supports several in the health area and recently invested in a wine luxury hotel in Vidigueira.
The presentation of the objectives of this protocol was in charge of Paulo Neves, executive member of the Board of Directors, who underlined the responsibility of receiving this donation – which has a deadline of February 2024 – and which «is focused on young people and childhood, but which is transversal to all CHUA units and intends to give everyone a better opportunity for the future».
«For each euro now donated, the CHUA should make the same investment amount, doubling the value», he concluded.
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