“These measures will allow cancer patients in the region to access modern and effective treatments from 2027 onwards, without the need for prolonged travel to other regions,” highlights a statement from the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR).

This public entity emphasises that the Algarve 2030 programme supports an investment of €17 million to “strengthen healthcare, especially in the area of ​​oncology, in the region, to be developed until 2027”.

The application submitted by the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS Algarve) for the implementation of a Southern Integrated Regional Oncology Center (CORIS), with a total investment of €17 million, of which €10.23 million corresponds to support from European funds.

On Monday, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, officially inaugurated the first investments of this application at the Algarve Central Hospital in Faro.

The investment will, among other structures, finance the construction of the new Algarve Advanced Oncology Diagnostic Complex (CDOA) in Loulé by 2027, enabling cancer patients to be treated entirely in the region, as announced by the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS) last October.

The goal is for the CDOA to address the issue of approximately 800 Algarve patients who must travel annually to Seville, Spain, for a series of oncological examinations.

The new building will house diagnostic equipment for positron emission tomography (PET) scans, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and a Medically Assisted Reproduction Center with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.

In general terms, the CCDR (Regional Coordination and Development Commission) states that for specific oncological treatment, “the operating rooms in the three hospital units in the region (Faro, Portimão and Lagos) will be reinforced and modernised through the acquisition of advanced endoscopic surgery equipment, surgical microscopy, video towers, anaesthesia and critical support systems, such as ECMO”.

“Recognising the growing importance of Oncological Pneumology, it is also foreseen that diagnostic and therapeutic capacity will be reinforced with video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) equipment and respiratory functional diagnosis,” reads the CCDR statement.

The CCDR emphasises that this investment represents "a structural and transformative change in the oncology response in the Algarve, reinforcing territorial equity, quality of care, technological innovation and patient-centred care."

This option also stems from the urgent need to respond to a disease that increasingly affects the population (the European Commission estimates a 24% growth by 2035) and, above all, from the region's insufficient responses, according to the statement.

“European cohesion funds managed in the regions continue, therefore, to assert themselves as a decisive instrument for raising the quality of public healthcare in the region and access to it, in this case, strengthening the competences of the National Health Service and reducing regional inequalities in access to specialised healthcare,” stated José Apolinário, president of the CCDR Algarve, quoted in the statement.