In an attempt to deflect any blame for the crisis that has finished looming and now envelopes the Algarve’s health service, the Regional Health Administration said today that the new Hospitals of the Algarve management body that runs Faro, Portimao and Lagos hospitals received "a total of €74 million between 2011 and 2013."
These additional funds were for the "financial recovery" of the hospitals and for paying long-overdue invoices from suppliers, some of which had been waiting for years.
In a statement responding to warnings from health trade unions about the lack of human and material resources in the region, the Regional Health Administration for the Algarve said that besides current and future vacancies for doctors, "the supply of clinical materials is running smoothly at the moment."
What the Regional Health Administration did not say is that the additional €74 million was largely spent on accounts due and setting up another level of management, not on new investment in doctors and equipment.
The regional management said that since January 2014, the grand total of 8 doctors were hired, as well as 43 nurses.
The Order of Medics said that the Algarve region lacked 100 to 200 hospital doctors and a further 100 GPs and it expressed fear about access to health care during the summer season.
The response from management simply has failed to respond to the numbers, leaving the Algarve’s health service over-stretched and unable to cope with the 300% increase in the regional population during the summer months.
According to figures in a recent report about the Regional Health Administration, there are 139,116 people in the Algarve without a family doctor, 31% of the region’s total. Add these to the number of tourists and a picture emerges of 'too little, far too late.'
There currently are around 100 job vacancies for doctors, but few takers due to the cost of living in the Algarve and due to the creation of the Hospitals of the Algarve's combative leader who has been in conflict since his appointment. Dr Nunes has spent much of his energy in annoying, upsetting and being rude to those he needs to convince and engage with.
As for the costs, "The Algarve is expensive, especially for a doctor early in a career” according to the head of the Southern Doctors Group, Margarida Agostinho who added that there is a tendency only to attract younger doctors who have family connections in the region, (i.e. they can live with a relative) and that if you want to progress in a career, coming to the Algarve puts that on hold for as long as you remain.
Agostinho said also that it is no secret that the current head of the Board of Directors of Hospitals of the Algarve is at loggerheads with the entire regional medical profession.
These reasons are why the jobs announced by the Minister of Health largely will remain unfilled.
The leader of the União de Sindicatos do Algarve, António Goulart came up with quote of the week.
Goulart considers that the main problem is not that doctors are reluctant to come to the Algarve, but that “the Government, knowing the problem, does not take steps to resolve it.”
