Lagos council has decided that the population of the western Algarve needs a new hospital and is running a public petition to demand that the government builds one.
A report covering this decision outlines the local hospital’s history from 1974 when the Hospital Concelhio was nationalised and later was integrated into the National Health Service.
Lagos hospital back then seemed to fit the bill and was, "equipped for the provision of complete hospital services, namely maternity, urgencies, diagnosis and analysis, improvements in the operating room and for patient care."
The hospital structure was changed when the Lagos hospital was integrated in the Hospital Center of Barlavento Algarvio in 2004 and then was integrated in the Hospital Centre of the Algarve and later in 2017, became part of the University Hospital of the Algarve.
The current council bemoans the state that the hospital has been allowed to get into, "for about 20 years the Hospital de Lagos has been hampered in its capacity to provide services to an increasing population of residents and tourists."
At a meeting in June, 2017, the council unanimously approved a motion requiring "the inclusion in the 2018 State Budget of the construction of a new Lagos Hospital," while calling on nearby councils to support its position.
As the Government did not add a new hospital for Lagos in its 'list of things to announce' in the 2018 budget, Lagos council now has decided to draft a public petition to gather signatures in protest and "to put pressure on the António Costa government," whose reply is likely to be brief and negative.
