The Municipal Assembly of Vila Nova de Famalicão approved on Friday night a motion from the Liberal Initiative that recommends to the Government the promotion of a public-private partnership (PPP) for the management of the Hospital de S. João de Deuswhich serves the population of this Minho municipality and also of Santo Tirso and Trofa, in the Porto district. In addition to the liberal municipal deputy Miguel Fidalgo, author of the proposal, the representatives of the PSD and CDS voted in favor.who won the local elections again this year, as well as the junta presidents elected by independent movements, while Chega abstained, and the PS and Bloco de Esquerda voted against.
According to the motion approved by the Municipal Assembly of Vila Nova de Famalicão, the Ministry of Health must promote a PPP, with “a demanding, transparent contract focused on clinical and operational results”. And that allows to the National Health Service hospital unit, integrated into the Médio Ave ULS, to ensure that the three municipalities served by the hospital, with a population of close to 250 thousand people, “benefit from modern, dignified facilities capable of responding to the present and the future”.
According to municipal deputy Miguel Fidalgo, “in recent years, several structural and operational problems have worsened that put the quality of the service provided at risk and directly harm users” of the Hospital de S. João de Deus. Namely, in the “constraints in emergencies, with long waiting times, frequent overcrowding and inability to respond during periods of greater accrual”.
IL argues that the PPPs that exist or have existed in Portugal, in Braga, Loures, Vila Franca de Xira and Cascais, demonstrate that, “when well contracted and scrutinized”, such partnerships allow “guaranteeing better response times”, “meeting demanding clinical indicators”, “promoting greater efficiency and transparency” and “ensuring greater investment capacity in less time”.
To DN, the coordinator of IL in Famalicão, Paulo Ricardo Lopes, said he hopes the municipality will be “on the front line” when the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, presents the new Basic Health Law. And that the motion also approved by the PSD and CDS, with the social-democratic bench of the Municipal Assembly led by the former deputy (now chief of staff of the social-democratic parliamentary group) Jorge Paulo Oliveira, “gives strength to the Government to move forward with new PPPs”.