New health center in Chamusca could be valuable in attracting more family doctors to the municipality (with photos)

The new Chamusca Family Health Unit was finally inaugurated, after almost six years since the start of the project and several setbacks. The ceremony, with due pomp and circumstance and the presence of the (still) Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, and the new director of the Local Health Unit of Lezíria do Tejo, Tatiana Silvestre, took place on the afternoon of Tuesday, 26th March. The USF, which has been fully operational since Monday, represents an investment of around two million euros, shared in 1.8 million.

The Minister began by congratulating the president of the municipality, Paulo Queimado, for his “effort and persistence” since the beginning of the project and for the availability that the municipality has always shown in solving the problems that arose along the way.

Even though he asked to change the focus to “preventing disease and promoting healthy styles”, instead of just worrying about dealing with diseases, Manuel Pizarro recognized the need for decent conditions in primary health care, especially to attract more professionals, at a time when there is a great shortage of doctors specializing in family health.

“In four years, one in three family doctors retired”, he announced, adding that there was a lack of preparation to deal with this problem, which has especially affected the interior territories, which are now faced with the large number of users without a family doctor. In the specific case of Chamusca, around 60 percent of the population lacks a family doctor.

Paulo Queimado looks to the future with the hope that the new USF will be of value in attracting more family doctors to the municipality and filling the staff. There are only two doctors on the USF staff, full-time, and one part-time doctor, with three more doctors hired in the health extensions of the parishes in the municipality, without full-time hours (the Chamusca USF has five full-time vacancies for doctors).

“It’s not just the inauguration of a building, it’s the beginning of a new era in healthcare for the population”, highlighted Paulo Queimado. Although he is satisfied with the new USF, the mayor did not forget the importance of the health extensions, which he says are “vital so that no user is left behind”, as the territory is vast and has an aging population and, often with difficulty traveling to the municipality headquarters.

The ceremony was also marked by the signing of the transfer of powers in the health area, as part of the decentralization of powers from the State to local authorities. This protocol proved to be a “hard nut to crack”, as it was the subject of several negotiations and renegotiations between the local authority and the government, with the USF being at the center of the negotiations, as one of the main conditions imposed by the mayor to accept the powers it was the completion of the installations.

Bureaucracies and pandemic delayed work necessary for more than twenty years

The project was born in 2018, when the funding program for the construction of new units was launched, although the rules for the Alentejo region, which includes Chamusca, dictated that the Municipal Councils could not own the buildings, thus passing to the responsibility of the Regional Health Administration, with a project created from scratch by the municipality. Between the necessary bureaucracy and a pandemic, the works started in 2022, being ready in the last quarter of 2023, with only a few details missing such as furniture and equipment.

The delay between the physical completion of the work and the inauguration came with the contractor’s refusal to deliver the work due to outstanding amounts with the ARS, which delayed payment until the local authority signed the transfer of powers in the area of ​​Health. insisted on doing, since the financial packages that accompanied it were not in line with the increase in expenses that the municipality would suffer, as well as the completion of the USF also being one of Paulo Queimado’s main battlehorses.