The Government is giving the “first step” to the Central Hospital of Alentejo, in Évora, presenting the financing project, and plans to launch the competition this year and works in 2020, revealed the Minister of Health.
Health Minister Marta Temido said that the ceremony to be held this afternoon in Évora, where the project to finance the new hospital will be presented as part of the reprogramming of Portugal 2020, “has a symbolic character “.
“It represents the materialization of a commitment that had already been assumed for many years“, that of “building a new Central Hospital in the Alentejo“, and constitutes “the first step” to “realize the project” of the unit, the architect Souto Moura, said.
The ceremony scheduled for today in the Alentejo city, at 4:00 pm, at the Espirito Santo Hospital in Évora (HESE), will be chaired by the prime minister, António Costa.
The ministers of Health and Planning and Infrastructures, Marta Temido and Pedro Marques, respectively, also participate in the session, as well as the mayor of Évora, Carlos Pinto de Sá.
According to the Ministry of Health, the announcement will be made of the tender for the Community program Portugal 2020 for the financing of the Central Hospital of Alentejo, through support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
“The Government has decided, in the framework of reprogramming of Portugal 2020, to take the bid for the construction of the new hospital“, and the investment to apply “is in the region of 40 million euros“, said the minister.
Marta Temido acknowledged that the total investment needed for the new hospital unit “exceeds this amount“, but “in this first moment, for this route of clear assumption of this priority“, in the context of the reprogramming of Portugal 2020, it is possible to move forward with the project of Souto Moura, which has been waiting for “concretization since 2012“.
“There is a political commitment regarding this hospital” and the Government assumes “clearly that the start of the financing will be done by reprogramming of community funds, but that the project will follow and the new Alentejo Central Hospital will happen,” he argued.
Now, “if the remaining funding comes also from community funds or if it comes from another source is something we will have to consider, during the times that are approaching,” said the minister, noting that “it is always interesting to diversify sources of funding.”
The minister explained that the “set of works” that is “from the beginning of 2018 within the framework of the review” of the project, by HESE and the Regional Health Administration and the Alentejo Regional Coordination and Development Commission.
“This team will now prepare the procedural pieces so that the launching of the [hospital construction] contest can take place during the first semester or beginning of the second semester this year “, followed by the contest:” We hope that, in 2020, it is possible to start the work, “he stressed.
The new hospital, according to the Ministry of Health, should involve a total investment of 181 million euros, of which 150 million for the building and 31 million for equipment costs.
The new equipment, in a first line, will serve the approximately 200 thousand inhabitants of the Évora region, but, in a second line, the minister of Health stressed, “will also serve the entire Alentejo region“, that is, “around half a million people. ”
“This new hospital has a number of advantages and responds to a set of expectations of the population of the region,” said Marta Temido, who is expected to have “a marked technological differentiation” and “widening and strengthening the current offer of services.“
