The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, considered this Monday that the construction of a new maternity hospital in Coimbra is “an absolute necessity” for the Central Region and recalled that it is identified as a priority in the State Budget report.
“Motherhood in Coimbra is not just a dream from a long time ago. It is an absolute necessity for the Central region,” he highlighted.
On the sidelines of the public signing ceremony of the memorandums of understanding for the implementation of the “Be Mom” program in the National Health Service, which took place in Coimbra, Ana Paula Martins said that “it was clear” in the State Budget report that “maternity in Coimbra is a priority“.
“Naturally, at the time, and now in the discussion of the Budget, the Prime Minister himself will surely speak about the importance we give to motherhood here in Coimbra,” he added.
The competition for the construction of the new Coimbra maternity hospital is expected to be called in February 2025stated, approximately a month and a half ago, the president of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Coimbra, Alexandre Lourenço.
The new maternity hospital, which will have an investment of more than 55 million eurosIt will be built on the perimeter of the university hospitals of Coimbra.
This is a project that has been in demand for a long time in the region and has suffered several delays in time: in 2021, its opening was scheduled for 2024 and, in 2023, it was expected that the competition could be launched in the first quarter of 2024. .
According to Alexandre Lourenço, some revisions to the process are currently being carried out so that the public tender can be launched in February 2025, with the estimate that works could begin in October of that year, if all goes well with the tender procedure. .
The president of the ULS in Coimbra also stated that there is a Government guarantee “to cover the needs” to finance the construction of the new maternity hospital.
The ULS of Coimbra is the entity “that gives birth to the most babies in the country, receives the most pregnant women and has the most newborns”but who lives with the shame of having two maternity hospitals (Daniel de Matos and Bissaya Barreto) “with inadequate functional plans for the care” provided.
“These are aging maternity hospitals, with serious technical and even energy efficiency problems that we have to resolve quickly,” he highlighted, also indicating that “a new maternity hospital is essential” for Coimbra.
Source: Observadora
