A serious shortage of health professionals is placing the future of the maternity ward at Portimão Hospital at risk and its closure is now a likely scenario, admits hospital boss Pedro Nunes.
Speaking to the Resident on Tuesday, Algarve hospital boss Pedro Nunes has admitted that “a huge effort” is being made to keep the maternity ward running and at the moment it relies greatly on the “goodwill of Faro doctors who have been travelling to Portimão to keep it open”.
Nunes agrees that the maternity ward is vital for the western Algarve and blames all those who supported a court decision that rules doctors are no longer obliged to travel to Portimão if they don’t want to. “I hope people now realise the consequences of this ruling,” said Nunes.
“I cannot force Faro doctors to come to Portimão.”
A protest against the closure of the maternity ward is being held outside Portimão Hospital this Friday at 5pm.
Read more about this in this week’s edition of the Algarve Resident newspaper, out in newsstands tomorrow (Thursday).
Portimão maternity unit faces closure
