As in other areas of the Algarve, the lack of a family doctor is leaving the population of Luz de Tavira unprotected, warned elected members of the Parish Council today in the Assembly of the Republic, who launched a petition demanding answers for more than 3,000 residents.
The president of the Union of Parishes of Luz de Tavira and Santo Estêvão, Jorge Francisco Silva (PS), and his rival Ângelo Gonçalves (PSD), were today side by side in the Parliamentary Health Committee to be heard as promoters of the petition “For family doctors at the Luz de Tavira health centre”, which collected 905 signatures demanding a second doctor for the local health centre, after being left with only one doctor when the other retired.
Although the number of signatories did not reach the 1000 required for petitioners to be heard in a hearing in Parliament, rapporteur Dinis Faísca (PSD) explained that, “given the subject”, it was “of utmost importance and in the interest of all parliamentary groups” to hear the arguments so that solutions can be found to resolve the problem, and to strengthen assistance in the parish.
“The population is aging, it needs more health care than the younger population and, at certain times, such as in May, due to agricultural activities, the population almost triples”, warned Ângelo Gonçalves, who spoke for the authors of the petition, warning that “a single family doctor is not enough, much less when the population almost triples”.
Ângelo Gonçalves defended the need to increase the medical response to the population and gave tyesterday as an example, a day when the population was left without any doctor because the only doctor in the area “couldn’t go to work” due to illness. The alternative is going to the municipal headquarters or to Santo Estêvão, where there are only consultations two or three times a week, in the morning!
“Today, the population has not had any kind of family doctor. What we are asking for is to look at the town of Luz de Tavira, at the Centro de Saúde do Mar, so that it can provide a capable response to the needs of the population”, he appealed, stressing that the majority of the population has few resources and lacks transport to travel to either Tavira or Santo Estêvão.
Present at the hearing, in addition to the rapporteur deputy, Dinis Faísca, were deputies Jamila Madeira (PS) and Sandra Silva (Chega), who also agreed on the need to find solutions that meet the wishes of the petitioners and the population.
Jamila Madeira stated that the lack of doctors “is a very common problem” in the Algarve and the specific problem in Luz de Tavira was that the “retirement of a doctor led to an additional shortage” of clinicians.
Sandra Silva, from Chega, said that the problem has been “going on for a long time” and sided with the petitioners, stating that one doctor “is not enough” and that solutions need to be found to help a population that is without assistance and that, according to Ângelo Gonçalves, is often forced to resort to the private sector that operates in Luz de Tavira, to receive assistance without leaving the area.
