Azores Situation Report Wednesday 20th December 2023

Fishing boat sinks in the Azores, but the crew were rescued.

A fishing vessel sank on Monday night, about 12 miles south of the island of Faial, but the crew were rescued alive, said the port captain.

The vessel was partially submerged and the four crew members were already in the life rafts when they were picked up by another fishing boat that was nearby”, explained Gomes Brás, adding that the men were then taken to the port of Horta.

The vessel, registered on the island of São Miguel, where the four crew members also come from, was called “Mestre Zangão”, and was probably surprised by the waves and due to the strong wind, that was felt in the area.

In addition of the fishing boat “Manuel de Arriaga”, which helped the crew, were also involved in search and rescue operations, a lifeboat, from the port of Horta, and a “Merlin” helicopter EH101, from Lajes Air Base, on Terceira Island.

PS concerned about increase in poverty and begging.

Municipal deputies in Ponta Delgada expressed concern on Friday about the increase in situations of begging and homelessness in the historic centre of the city on the island of São Miguel, in the Azores.  They said that It is imperative that the means of combating poverty and social exclusion be found and that public policies to combat drug consumption and drug trafficking, which are revealed to be the main causes of homelessness in the municipality of Ponta Delgada are created.

Ponta Delgada Hospital Cardiology Service begins electrophysiology technique.

The Cardiology service at Hospital Divino Espírito Santo (HDES) in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, has from today the functionality of electrophysiology, which avoids sending patients to hospitals in the continent.

HDES has stated that, from today, “it now has another functionality carried out in the Cardiology service, more specifically in the Cardiovascular Intervention Unit/Hemodynamic Room”.

“It’s about of a specific area of ​​Cardiology that to date has not been installed in the Regional Health Service and which justified the sending of few dozen patients per year to central hospitals in continent”, it reads.

According to the note, the invasive electrophysiology “allows a detailed analysis of the mechanisms responsible for arrhythmias, the definition of their location and, when possible, definitive treatment using energy radiofrequency (catheter ablation) and/or cryoablation”.

“For To make this technique possible, it was necessary to acquire specific skills, namely having doctors with subspecialties in cardiac electrophysiology and cardio pneumology technicians dedicated to this area, as well as very different technical means/equipment”, explained in the note the director of the HDES Cardiology service, Dinis Martins.

The HDES Cardiology service, in conjunction with its Board of Directors and the Secretariat Regional Health Department, assures that “it has evolved and introduced over the years new techniques and procedures, equipping and enabling the Service Regional Health of the Azores for the best treatment of patients.

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