The PS has submitted a protest vote in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira against the Regional Government’s announced decision to sell the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital. The socialists consider that this is a “wrong, hasty and harmful option to the public interest, jeopardising decades of public investment and the future of the hospital response in the Region.”
Paulo Cafôfo warns that the management of public health “cannot be confused with a logic of real estate development” and directs strong criticism to the regional executive, stating that “the Regional Government cannot become a real estate developer, alienating strategic public assets instead of planning, investing and strengthening the Regional Health Service.”
The PS parliamentary leader believes that, despite the President of the Regional Government later announcing that any final decision would only come after 2030 – seen as a retreat under political and social pressure – this doesn’t halt or suspend the plan to sell the hospital. On the contrary, he argues, it creates a risky strategic gap by delaying decisions that should be made now. In his view, the future of Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital must be planned and prepared in the present, focusing on its transformation, reorganisation of services, and strengthening of the human resources needed to meet the population’s needs.
The PS recalls that the hospital has received during its lifetime a significant amount of public investment, involving millions of euros in infrastructure, equipment, and modernisation. Therefore, “its sale would represent an unacceptable waste of public resources and the loss of a fundamental strategic asset for the Regional Health Service.”
Reaffirming his public commitment, Paulo Cafôfo firmly believes that the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital should continue in the public sphere, functioning as a complementary hospital to the Central and University Hospital of Madeira, with essential services such as continued care, rehabilitation, palliative medicine, ragile patient unit, and other intermediate responses.
In this regard, he does not fail to question the lack of transparency of the Regional Government regarding the alleged study on the cost of transforming the hospital into a residential structure for the elderly, recalling that the PS has already formally requested, on the 26th of January, access to this same study.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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