Eleven health professionals – seven nurses, two physiotherapists, a speech therapist and a psychologist – have been hired for São Brás de Alportel’s trouble-torn physiotherapy centre.
The news was revealed by the Algarve’s health authority ARS and has allowed the centre to set up more beds and thus provide care to a larger number of people.
Indeed, ARS says even more health professionals will be hired this month.
The São Brás centre is the only state-run facility for victims of serious accidents and limb loss in southern Portugal, and has faced a shortage of human resources and medical equipment for several years.
As readers may recall, ARS announced last year in August that it was going to privatise the centre and launch an international tender for its management rights. (click here).
A month later, São Brás mayor Vítor Guerreiro complained that the tender was “gathering dust”. Pedro Medina from ARS told us at the time that “it is not ARS Algarve that launches the tender” and that the matter was “in the hands of the ministries of Health and Finance”. (click here).
The topic was only touched upon again this April, when Health Minister Adalberto Fernandes said that the tender would be launched soon.
The local PSD delegation said recently that the announcement was a “lie” and that the tender was in fact still gathering dust.
The Resident contacted ARS to ask what the situation was regarding the tender and the hiring of new health professionals. An answer was not provided at the time of going to press.
