The Algarve’s desperately short-staffed hospitals and health centres are to become the training grounds for 149 young doctors as of this month.
Announcing the news, regional health authority ARS Algarve outlined the various specialities of the incoming professionals.
Thirty will be going to the hospitals of Faro, Portimão and Lagos – 11 specialising in internal medicine, four in psychiatry, two in anaesthesiology, two in obstetrics/gynaecology, two in cardiology and others in gastroenterology, nephrology, oncology, pneumology, and radiology.
A further 18 will be focusing on general medicine – 10 in the region’s central block of health centres, four in the western Algarve, and the rest in eastern (Sotavento) areas – while western Algarve and central health centres will also be beefed up by three public health interns.
Finally, a further 98 young medics will be completing what is called their ‘Ano Comum’ – the first year in the field – in the Algarve. It is a new tactic which ARS Algarve hopes might result in the interns opting to stay in the Algarve after they complete their training.
Queues at casualty run to 10 hours
Meantime, ongoing staffing problems continue to blight Algarve’s hospitals with waiting times for casualty patients being highlighted by the nation’s newspapers.
According to Correio da Manhã today one woman filed a complaint over an alleged 10-hour wait for help for her 88-year-old grandmother on Wednesday.
Faro hospital has told the paper it was not aware of any problems on that day, but the number of beds available for casualty patients has been increased by 20.
