The leader of the Socialist Party (PS), José Luís Carneiro, has announced that he will urgently call the health minister before parliament over a recent string of deaths at Portimão Hospital, explaining that he has learned of a third possibly avoidable death caused by what he believes to be the lack of a sufficiently rapid response. This follows the revelation of the death of an 87-year-old man, which rippled through newspapers last week.

“The support I asked for did not arrive. The consequences I anticipated became real,” said João Coucelo, the former director of the Medical-Surgical Emergency Department at Portimão Hospital following a string of recent deaths at the A&E unit. He was removed from his post last Thursday.

A 38-year-old man with a prior criminal record was arrested in the act with around 4.5 tonnes of hashish in Olhão, the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) announced on Monday, 9 November.

Campaigners opposed to a large-scale tourism development project planned for beachside land between Meia Praia and Lagos Marina will take to the streets on Saturday, 7 November. The Save Meia Praia citizens’ group is asking supporters to gather at 10.30am on Avenida dos Descobrimentos, beside the marina bridge, before walking along the avenue.

Portugal’s Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) has reduced from 22 to 16 years the prison sentence given to a man for the killing of a Brazilian woman he met in the Algarve, whose burned body was found in the Alentejo.

Four foreign nationals aged between 16 and 43 have been arrested, and about 1.1 tonnes of hashish seized, at Porto das Barcas in São Teotónio, in the municipality of Odemira, Alentejo. The haul came during a joint operation by the Judicial Police (PJ) and the National Republican Guard (GNR) against international drug trafficking by sea.

Housing rights campaigners are set to pitch camp in Portimão’s Praça do Município on Saturday, 7 November, from 6pm. The event will be host to cultural activities, a community kitchen, and a people’s assembly. It builds on the movement’s first assembly, held on 1 November. 

Portugal’s health inspectorate, the Inspeção-Geral das Atividades em Saúde (IGAS), is set to open an inquiry into the death of an elderly man who died in the early hours of Wednesday, 4 November, while waiting to be seen in the A&E department at Portimão Hospital.