The Algarve needs a new hospital, says the opposition PSD leader and former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who visited Faro Hospital on Tuesday (May 30).
“Without a new unit, it will be very difficult to attract new doctors and nurses,” he told reporters during his visit to meet with the region’s hospital board.
“We know we cannot build it in just one year, but we do not accept that the government has included the construction of new hospitals in the 2017 State Budget and none of the four priorities is the Algarve nor have any of the works started,” Passos Coelho added.
The only reason the hospital wasn’t built during his tenure as PM (2011-2015) was due to a “lack of money”. At the time, the only funds that were available went into renovating the A&E departments at Portimão and Faro hospitals.
The PSD leader also said that the main issues affecting the public health sector in the Algarve – “a lack of resources and investment, longer waiting times and more difficulties in scheduling surgeries” – also plague the rest of the country though they become even worse in the region during the incredibly busy summer season.
