Azores Situation Report Wednesday 22nd May 2024
From our correspondent in the Azores
Ponta Delgada Hospital resumes external consultations except paediatrics on Tuesday.
The hospital in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, which is gradually restoring outpatient clinical activity after the fire, announced today that it will resume external consultations in all specialties, except paediatrics, on Tuesday.
According to a post on the Facebook page of the Hospital do Espírito Santo (HDES), from Tuesday “[external] consultations in all specialties will be resumed, with the exception of Paediatrics”.
The publication states that, on the same day, on the 1st floor of the Ponta Delgada hospital building, on the island of São Miguel, there will be “the resumption of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, of the Psychiatry consultation (operating in the Day Hospital space) and [the] Pulmonology consultation (operating in the Respiratory Rehabilitation space)”.
HDES, however, appeals to users not to go to the hospital in person if they have not been contacted to do so.
The Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, suffered a fire on May 4th, which forced the transfer of all patients who were hospitalized to various locations in the Azores, Madeira and the mainland.
Shortly after the fire, the Government of the Azores declared the situation of public calamity to “accelerate procedures” that would allow the activity of the largest Azorean health unit to be normalized in a “short space of time”.
On Wednesday, in a press conference, the president of the board of directors, Manuela Gomes de Menezes, said that, “having guaranteed the security and normal functioning of all systems”, the prospect was “moving towards the partial reopening of the consultation external hospital, the resumption of the patient movement service and the return of non-clinical hospital employees”.
On the same date, May 15th, the clinical director said that oncology treatments at HDES would be regularized by the end of this week.
“Regarding oncological treatments, all will be completely resolved, and normal operation will occur at the end of next week”, said Paula Macedo.
Also, according to Paula Macedo, from the 27th, the unit will be “functioning practically [in a] normal way”, although there may be “some difficulties”, not in terms of treatments, but of consultations.
Government of the Azores warns of possible increase in the social mobility tariff.
The Secretary of Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure of the Government of the Azores warned deputies of the Regional Assembly this Friday about the possibility that the social mobility tariff could increase between the archipelago and the mainland.
Passengers from the Azores to pay just 134 euros (the maximum value for a resident fare between the region and the continent) and that the difference between this value and the real cost of the fare is then reimbursed to the airlines, directly by the State.
Currently, Azoreans traveling between the region and the continent have to purchase airline tickets at prices much higher than 134 euros and are subsequently reimbursed for the difference at CTT counters.