“When the hotels were contacted to receive these users, there was no hesitation whatsoever. However, given next week’s festivities, there is no availability of hotels, which already had commitments and, of course, our concern was to continue to ensure a social response of accommodation, food and payment of per diems to these users, in a dignified manner,” said the regional secretary for Health and Social Security, Mónica Seidi, in a statement to Lusa.
In question are 31 patients who were transferred to the island of Faial to continue their hemodialysis treatments, following the fire that broke out on May 4 at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, which made it impossible to provide the service at that unit.
On Monday, Azores Day will be celebrated and the official celebrations, which honor 31 personalities or institutions, will take place on the island of Faial, followed by the May plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, on the same island.
The hotels where the patients were staying reported that they had no rooms available after lunchtime on Sunday, which led the government to look for alternative solutions.
Part of the patients will be housed at the Faial Island Sports Service training center, which, according to Mónica Seidi, “was refurbished last year”.
The rest “will be distributed among a residential home, a hostel and apartments that are called military apartments”.
“These are solutions that will continue to give dignity to our users and, in addition, we want to continue to take care with food, because we are talking about users with a specific pathology and who have to have some food control associated with them, as well as the payment of per diems,” stressed the head of the Health portfolio.
She expressed her willingness for the patients to return to the hotels where they were staying as soon as possible.
“I don’t know when they will be available again, but if they decide to return to the hotels, for greater comfort, we have nothing against that. Our wish is for these patients to return home, to their island, as soon as possible,” he said.
The Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo is gradually resuming oncology treatments and consultations, but the hemodialysis service is still waiting for water analyses to resume treatments.
