The Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, sent this Monday to the first half of next year the announcement of the construction schedule of the new hospital in the West, recognizing that the current units are obsolete.
“In the first half of next year I will announce a schedule for the construction of the new hospital,” said Manuel Pizarro, in Caldas da Rainha, district of Leiria, at the end of a visit to the local hospital, which he recognized “many difficulties because of its old infrastructure.
Despite the investments made in the last three years, of the order of “eight million euros”, the minister acknowledged that Infrastructures “are not adapted to all the needs of the modern world”emphasizing that in the case of “a hospital located outside the large centers it also has difficulties in terms of human resources”.
During the visit, which was closed to the media, the official said that he found “services that are fully operational, with a lot of dedication from their professionals,” highlighting maternity, which “works well, with very competent professionals, with a lot of love. mothers and children, for families.”
Despite betting on “transmitting an image of tranquility”, he acknowledged that this “does not diminish the seriousness of the problems that may have arisen” in the hospital, where a baby died in June of this year, at a time when that, out of shame, upon completing the scale, the Obstetric Emergency Department was closed to the CODU/INEM.
“Professionals are never enough and they have to be multiplied so that all shifts are carried out with the quality standards that are necessary,” said Manuel Pizarro, noting that having “no bag of miracles to solve all problems” of personal guiltboth in this and in other hospitals in the country.
Even so, he assured, “the ministerial team, the future executive direction of the SNS [Serviço Nacional de Saúde] and public hospitals are working to solve the shortage of personnel” and, with the publication of the SNS statute, admitted the expectation that “with the entry into force of the 2023 Budgets, regional procedures will be streamlined” in relation to hiring of professionals.
Regarding the structural difficulties of the hospital, which for years has required the construction of an Intensive Care Unit, the minister said that “the budget allocation is inscribed in the budget of the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (CHO)”, where it is located. the das Caldas da Rainha hospital, and that the Ministry of Health will now “evaluate what technical conditions” it has to carry out the work, “in a circumstance, this one, very difficult.”
Despite this investment, “it is time to build a new hospital,” acknowledged Manuel Pizarro, who argued that the three CHO units (the Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche hospitals) “are relatively obsolete.”
The minister awaits the conclusion of a study commissioned by the Western Intermunicipal Community (OesteCim) on the location and healthcare profile of the new hospital, after which “a decision will be made.”
The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste integrates the hospitals of Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche, having an area of influence made up of the populations of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã and part of the counties of Alcobaça and Mafra.
Source: Observadora
