Azores Situation Report Wednesday 24th July 2024
Price of food basket in the Azores increased by 6% in one year
In June of this year, the average basket of food products cost 133.52 euros, representing an increase of 6% compared to June 2023. The biggest price increase recorded was in olive oil (+60%) and the most significant decrease was in onions (-14%)
Updated travel advice has been published on the UK Government site https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/portugal/safety-and-security
Hiking in Madeira and the Azores
Hiking in Madeira and the Azores can be challenging. Choose paths that suit your fitness and experience.
Be prepared for narrow, uneven paths and heights. Wear suitable clothing and walking boots. Take extra care if it has rained, as the ground may be slippery and unstable. Check with your tour guide or local organiser that it is safe before you set off.
Leave details of where you are going with your hotel reception and take a phone with you. Reduce the risk by walking with a group or following a guide.
See more information about staying safe, walkway closures and access restrictions on Visit Madeira and Visit Azores.
Ponta Delgada Hospital says it is “quickly resuming” healthcare activities
The Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES), in Ponta Delgada, which suffered a fire, carries out a daily average of 399 consultations and 3,087 exams, but surgical activity is still “strongly conditioned”, announced the board of directors.
The fire, which broke out on May 4th at Ponta Delgada Hospital, the largest healthcare unit in the Azores, forced all patients who were hospitalized to be transferred to various locations in the Azores, Madeira and mainland Portugal.
According to those responsible for HDES, the health unit is “quickly resuming” healthcare activities to “values close” to those existing before the fire, particularly regarding the number of medical consultations (399 consultations/day), Day Hospital sessions (70 sessions/day) and complementary diagnostic and treatment methods (3,087 exams/day) carried out.
In a press release to update data on the institution’s installed capacity to date, the administration states that in the HDES Emergency Service, despite being divided between the Ribeira Grande Health Centre and CUF Açores Hospital, it has already been possible to “match the daily average of care provided at the time of the fire, that is, more than 300 emergency care services per day”.
However, the surgical activity of HDES “is still shown to be strongly conditioned (average of 10 surgeries/day)” due to the dispersion of resources between the Operating Rooms available at the Bom Jesus Clinic and the CUF Açores Hospital, located in the city of Lagoa, on the island of São Miguel.
According to those responsible, “priority remains for urgent, emergency and non-postponable surgeries, particularly for oncological reasons”.
As a result of the fire on May 4, the institution’s installed capacity, namely in terms of the number of beds available for hospitalization, was compromised and dispersed across several public and private health and social institutions on the island of São Miguel, a situation that “has been gradually and phasedly reversed with the resumption of activity at the HDES facilities”, hospital officials also guarantee.
On July 15th, the institution resumed hospitalization in the Nascente Wing, initially with Palliative Care and Psychiatry, to which, as of July 17th, four medical hospitalization services and three surgical hospitalization services were added.
Currently, the HDES East Wing has a total of 199 hospital beds and four intensive care beds in the Critical Patient Unit.
As of today (July 23rd), 99 patients are hospitalized in the various medical-surgical inpatient services and there are no patients hospitalized in the Critical Patient Unit, the board of directors also reports.
Additionally, HDES maintains 17 surgical hospitalization vacancies at the Bom Jesus Clinic, 28 medical hospitalization vacancies at the Ribeira Grande Health Centre and 87 hospitalization vacancies at the CUF Açores Hospital, in the specialties of Paediatrics, Obstetrics, Neonatology, Cardiology, Intensive and Intermediate Care, Cerebrovascular, Surgery and Gastroenterology, it also indicates.