“More public health doctors” in Beja district

The deputy of the PS, Nelson Prieto, elected by the Beja constituency, addressed a request to the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, about the health situation in Baixo Alentejo.

In the letter, the MP expressed his concern about the uncertainties plaguing the region with regard to health: “We live in a complex time when the world, Portugal and Baixo Alentejo are seeking to respond, in a context of great uncertainty, to a set of challenges that impose great pressures. on societies and, in particular, on public policies.”

Public investment, in Nelson Prieto’s view, must be positioned for a “paradigm shift”, to contribute to a “better region in which to live and, ultimately, the deferred economic, social and territorial cohesion of Baixo Alentejo.”

Thus, “it is necessary to provide better sanitary conditions for the region, because it is a fundamental right and a critical requirement to establish and attract a new population, evidence that became more clear two years after the response from the National Health Service to the epidemiological situation, throughout the national territory.”

The deputy indicated, as a matter of priority, “the initiation of the immediate construction of the second phase of the Jose Joaquim Fernández Hospital, in Beja, the reconsideration of the project and the guarantee of a financing instrument within the scope of the state budget and community financial instruments, for its implementation.”

There should also be, on the part of the Ministry of Health, “an effort to attract more public health physicians to Baixo Alentejo, specialists in the primary health care range of general medicine or family medicine and even specialists in the hospital area, to reinforce models of attractiveness.” Creative and innovative in order to secure these physicians (eg, an updated version of the ‘doctors to districts’ model).

The deputy also presented the need for a protocol between the Beja municipality and the regional health administration to transfer land, invest in palliative care and mental health, and increase the continuing care network.