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MP Cristóvão Norte slams Health Minister for “boldness to deceive the Algarvians” over new hospital

hospital criticism“With this government there will be no new hospital, period” stressed PSD MP Cristóvão Norte today following Health Minister Marta Temido’s visit to the Algarve, during which she announced that in 2021 the government would begin implementing a new Hospital in the region.

 In a public statement, the parliamentarian explains that “this commitment is the proof that there will be no new hospital by 2023, because the project has not been included in the multiannual framework of investments for new hospitals in the government’s program, and in the 2020 State Budget proposal”.

The MP is referring to a list of five new hospitals which have been projected to be built in the coming years by the Government. However, a study done to establish a ranking of priorities to aid in deciding where these five hospitals would be built listed the Algarve as a second priority, thus the health minister’s announcement has not been officially projected.

This is despite having the Algarve having the biggest decrease in medical staff over the past few years, and a massive aging demographic. Cristóvão Norte, PSD deputy, points out in an ironic tone, that “the Minister’s calendar is simple: survey in 2021, launch the specifications in 2025, open the tender in 2029! With this government there will be no new hospital, period. They laid the first stone in 2008 and only in 2021 they say they will start!”

“Nobody believes in the intentions of this government. When we have a State Budget before us that sets investments in health for the next 4 years and the Algarve is not registered on the last, the Algarve can only take the health minister’s statement as lies”. The parliamentarian says that “the PSD, as it did last year and was unsuccessful, will present a proposal to amend the budget, so that the priorities of new hospitals are met. To establish doctors in the region, a new hospital is needed. It is a necessary pursuit.”

“The current infrastructures are obsolete and it is intolerable that patients are forced to go private, while those who have no money suffer in silence, in despair, with waiting lists that deny access to healthcare” he concluded.