Over 300 metres, spread over the two shoulders of the main road, next to the also called General Hospital, the demonstrators boasted different couplets and uttered phrases in support of the cause.

The concentration began at 10:30 and continued into the morning, with the participation of doctors, nurses and other hospital professionals, including workers from the Hospital Common Use Service (SUCH), as well as union members, mayors and local leaders from different political forces.

“I was resuscitated by Hospital dos Covões. Thank you!” Read a poster displayed by Carlos Ventura, neighbour and user of the institution, integrated for some years at the Hospital and University Centre of Coimbra (CHUC).

Suffering from respiratory problems, Carlos Ventura was accompanied by his friend Fernando Santos, a cardiology patient and a "risk patient" followed in recent years by doctors from Covões.

The two justified to the agency Lusa their presence in the initiative with the need to “prevent the closure” of the hospital founded by Bissaya Barreto, 'Mason' and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Coimbra, who had connections with the dictator Salazar since the times when both studied at the local university.

Currently retired, Rui Pato, who in the past decade chaired the then Centro Hospitalar de Coimbra (CHC), which included the General Hospital, was also present at the demonstration.

“I am happy to see that people have joined. It is the first time that I see the city interested in this issue”, declared the pulmonologist to Lusa.

Rui Pato, who is also a musician, having accompanied the singer José Afonso on recording the first records and performing shows in the middle of the 20th century, recalled having worked “in this building for almost 40 years” and stressed that “I couldn't stay oblivious” to the struggle of the city and the Centro region for the valorisation of Hospital dos Covões and against its dismantling.