Portugal’s Health Emergency and Transformation Plan will build 5 private health centers in Algarve. These new health centers will be built in areas where the rate of residents without a family doctor for more than 12 months is lower than the average rate.

Algarve To Build 5 Health Centers

Algarve is planning to build 5 new health centers in regions where there is a shortage of doctors. These health centers will help the residents who are currently deprived of a private doctor. Private and social sectors will run health centers. These sectors will collaborate with the city councils as those areas will be selected as health centers with fewer doctors currently.

Also Read: Portalegre City Council Approves Installation Of CCTV Cameras After Algarve

It is planned to make regulations for the new Family Health Units Model C (USF-C) that will aid the residents within the Algarve. According to the statistics. 1,566,436 healthcare users were unable to have the facility of a family doctor in Portugal during October this year.  These regulations were endorsed by the Secretary of State for Health Management, Cristina Vaz Tomé. Cristina stated that the demand for these USF-C should be endorsed by the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service.

Another condition for establishing the location of the health care centers is that the designated area should have a minimum of 4,000 people who don’t have a family doctor. So overall, the 2 conditions that should be met for establishing the location of a private health center are:

• The rate of residents without a family doctor for more than 12 months should be lower than the average rate.
• The chosen area should have a minimum of 4,000 people who do not have the services of a family doctor.

Voluntary Doctors And Nurses At New Health Centers

The ordinance that comprises the union for health workers and the city council has stated that these newly built healthcare facilities (USF-C) will have a voluntary team of doctors, nurses, and their respective technical assistants. These teams will respond professionally and will help the residents of the nearby area.

This motion for the construction of private health centers managed by th local authorities and social sectors was approved by the Government of Portugal back in September. During the first phase of the project, 20 private health centers will be built in various locations within Portugal. These 20 health centers will be built as follows:

• 10 Health Centers in Lisbon and Tagus Valley
• 5 Health Centers in Leiria
• 5 Health Centers in the Algarve

More Doctors In Health Centers

The ordinance will finalize the number of doctors that will be committed to these health centers. These doctors will specialize in general and family medicine while the nurses will be able to specialize in family health nursing. The Ministry of Health has stated:

[First 20 doctors will be] starting operations before the end of the year. With the application regulations published only last week, just over a month before the end of the year, it has already received many expressions of interest [in these USF-Cs].

According to the healthcare plan, these 20 USF-C doctors will cover around 180,000 healthcare users. Half of these users are located in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo. These regions recently have had a shortage of family doctors. After the completion of the first phase, 2 more phases will be started. The tender for these phases will begin next year in 2025. These phases will be able to cover around 360,000 healthcare users.

Any USF-C can be created by making a simple process that opens the market under the regulation of the Public Contracts Code. This can also be achieved by providing services for the healthcare sector. All applications have to be submitted electronically to the Central Administration of Healthcare System (ACSS).

After the implementation of the health center, the agency that commissioned it should review the performance after every 3 months. Apart from this, the ACSS and the DE-SNS will also check the contractual obligations of the organizations during the commissioning period of the USF-C. In case of any non-compliance, fines will be imposed and reports will be posted on the website of that particular company.

Read More About: Firefighters In Portugal Slam Government To Suspend Negotiations For Better Working Conditions