Extra staff will also be brought in to man the SUB emergency centres in Loulé, Vila Real de Santo António, Albufeira, and Lagos, especially over the festive period, when the region’s population increases.
Speaking to regional newspaper Sul Informação, Ana Paula Gonçalves said the services of doctors external to the health service will have to be acquired to bolster resources over the busy Christmas period, for which the groundwork has been in preparation since September.
Ms. Gonçalves said boosting doctors is necessary in all hospitals at one point or another and one reason for that is that “from the age of 55, doctors are not obliged to work in emergency wards and the average age of most hospitals’ doctors is above that.”
The head of the Algarve hospitals’ administrative board said a “dynamic management” of shifts will also be applied to also ensure the frontline doctors’ “right to rest.”
A spotlight was thrust on the matter after national newspaper Diário de Notícias (DN) reported at the start of this week that, “in addition to Faro, the hospital of Portimão and the basic emergency centres of Vila Real de Santo António, Albufeira and Loulé have, for at least one third of the month, timetables with space for more services.”
According to DN, “it is in the Algarve, a region that suffers great tourist pressure at the beginning of the year, where the biggest problems regarding a lack of doctors in December are felt”.
In related news, the Algarve now has two new VMER emergency resuscitation vehicles, serving Portimão and Albufeira.
The life-saving emergency response units were handed over in a ceremony at Portimão hospital. They are part of an agreement between the Ministry of Health and the National Health Service (SNS) to equip the SNS with 22 new VMER cars throughout the country.