“There has already been the award of a functional plan to a company that has already met once with the clinical team, and meetings will follow, approximately every three weeks, so that the rest of the program can move forward,” said the Health Secretary of the Azores, Mónica Seidi, to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the modular hospital, built next to the infrastructure affected by the fire.
The Hospital of the Divine Holy Spirit (HDES) in Ponta Delgada, the largest in the Azores, was affected by a fire on May 4, which forced the transfer of all inpatients to other health units, including outside the region. The damage to the infrastructure, which is gradually resuming activity, was estimated at 24 million euros.
Starting Tuesday, the HDES emergency service, which was operating at the Ribeira Grande Health Center, will be provided at the modular hospital, which should be fully operational “in the last quarter of 2024.”
The Regional Secretary for Health and Social Security of the Azores reiterated today that the decision of the Azorean executive was to “rehabilitate the old HDES and make it new,” but stressed that it is “a complex job.”
“It’s not just about breaking down walls, it’s about knowing which walls will be broken and what will be built on those walls, so that an apparently new service emerges, but within the same structure,” she said.
Mónica Seidi said that the functional plan has already been awarded, but did not provide a date for its completion.
“It’s a complex, time-consuming task, but we hope that as soon as possible we can at least make this functional plan public, because we want other contributions from other people or other health professionals,” she emphasized.
According to the official, HDES service directors will be called to “give their input” on “what they would like for a future service.”
A survey of the hospital’s care activity in recent years is also being conducted to project future needs.
