Social Democratic Party MP, Cristóvão Norte, has criticised the continued blocking of the funds needed to build a new hospital in the Algarve region.
The Democrats have been trying to get an amendment to the State Budget 2019 that ensured the Hospital Central do Algarve, first agreed in 2006 but blocked every year since due to funding 'issues,' would at last be constructed as the current ones can't cope.
The Social Democrats' amendment was voted down by the ruling Socialists and their Left Bloc and the Communist Party allies, with everyone else abstaining.
A 2006 technical study showed the need for another hospital in the region but next year’s budget allocated hospital building funds to Lisbon, Évora and Seixal.
Cristóvão Norte said that "the Algarve has recorded the largest population growth in the country, the biggest fall in health indicators, and in 2017 a 103% increase in complaints from users, compared to a huge increase of 18% in the rest of the country."
Cristóvão Norte also stated that the Algarve is the region with the greatest population variation, which brings challenge for the health sector. He claims not to understand why, year after year, the plan for the new hospital has been sidelined.
Overall, the opposition parties in the Algarve agree that the region is being underfunded but the Socialist Party machine, in the form of MP Luís Graça, has been wheeled out to criticise the Social Democrats for saying that the 2019 State Budget 'does not include any investment for the Algarve.'
This spat is not only over the healthcare budget, Graça warned that accusations by the PSD that the budget for culture in the region is being cut, are false as funding is rising next year.
The Algarve will have "a further 2.8%, to which should still be added another €1.5 million for the 365 Algarve programme, which puts the investment in culture in the Algarve above the 2018 figure," explained Graça, omitting to mention that the Algarve 365 programme is funded by Brussels.
Back to the Algarve health budget, Graça sais this also will be higher than last year, as the "Regional Health Administration of Algarve will have another eight million euros in 2019 compared to 2018, and the University Hospital Centre of the Algarve will have, by virtue of a proposed amendment by the Socialist Party, more financial capacity in 2019."
However much the politicians fiddle around with figures and percentages, Algarve opposition MPs suspect that the region is not getting its fair share of investment and that, as supplier of over 40% of the taxes generated by tourism, it is shameful that the current hospital provision remains unable fully to provide for locals.
