The Council of Ministers has approved this Friday, 9 January, a resolution to launch the tender for the construction of the long awaited Algarve Central Hospital, the Prime Minister announced today.
Opening the debate in Parliament on Thursday, Luís Montenegro revealed the Government would finally approve “the resolutions to launch the tender for the construction of the new Algarve Hospital”.
“It is a flagship infrastructure project, joining others such as the Hospital de Todos os Santos in Lisbon,” he stressed.
Montenegro had already announced last August, at the Festa do Pontal in Quarteira, that the launch of an “international tender” for the Algarve Central Hospital would take place “ no later than early October” – making the announcement almost three months late, as many had expected would happen. The project will involve a total investment of €800 million.
Government officials have described today as an “historic day” because “one of the most important health projects in Portugal will finally move forward and become reality”.
Speaking at the briefing following the Council of Ministers, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, referred to a decades-long “dream” that has now been “fulfilled” by this Democratic Alliance (AD) centre-right PSD/CDS-PP coalition Government.
According to the minister, the initial investment will amount to €420 million, under a Public-Private Partnership model, with “a significantly higher financial commitment over the subsequent 26 years”.
Total payments shared by the public and private sector are rumoured to reach €1.1 billion, to be paid to the private operator awarded the hospital concession. Asked about the opening date, Leitão Amaro declined to give a timeline, referring the matter to the Ministry of Health.
“This is the most sought-after investment in the Algarve. At last, the State is committing to moving forward with this project” he said.
Even so, this is not the first time that tenders have been launched for the Algarve Central Hospital.
A similar process took place in July 2008, under one of José Sócrates’ Socialist governments, but the project never went ahead. Not a foundation stone was laid, and works ultimately did not materialise.
Cristóvão Norte, a PSD MP and regional leader of the party in the Algarve, has already reacted, noting that Algarve residents will only “truly believe it when [the hospital] is actually built”.
“It is news that gives us hope, reflects our commitment, and is something we have been working towards in direct coordination with the Government. But people in the Algarve will only really believe it when it is built, and I understand that,” he stated.
“If I were not involved in the process, I would also be sceptical. Everyone remembers Sócrates’ promises. The first thing to do is apologise for all these years in which nothing moved forward; the second is to shout: don’t stop. We need to move quickly, because there are many people in need,” he added.
The Socialist Party (PS) has also taken a position, in a public statement signed by the two MPs elected for the Algarve, Luís Graça and Jorge Botelho, claiming credit for the project.
“We recall that it was the PS that decided to adopt a Public-Private Partnership model, and it was a Socialist government that left the process prepared for the construction of the new Central and University Hospital, the opening of the new Hospital das Terras do Infante in Lagos, the creation of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Algarve, and the allocation of €49 million from the Recovery and Resilience Plan for the modernisation of the Algarve’s primary healthcare network,” the statement reads.
“The process for the new Algarve Central Hospital was completed in the transition dossier between the governments of António Costa and the Democratic Alliance, and we regret that the PSD and the current Prime Minister took 646 days to take the only remaining step, specifically the launch of the international tender for the construction of the new hospital. The tender for the new Algarve Central Hospital should have already opened; even yesterday was already too late,” it concludes.
Source: LUSA
