Need for palliative care beds in Portugal is immense
Portugal’s caretaker government has signed 90 financing contracts today, worth €88 million, to create 3,300 places in the national palliative care network (officially known as RNCCI – Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados Integrados).
The investment, involving private and social sectors, has been carried out under the PRR (Plan for Recovery and Resilience), and will allow for the creation of “more long-term care beds, mental health beds, and home-based responses”, secretary of state for health management, Cristina Vaz Tomé, told reporters at the end of the contract signing ceremony in Lisbon.
“Today is really very important”, she said – stressing that the government also has to “answer to citizens”. Palliative care is a branch of healthcare that has been screaming for greater commitment for years.
The network will create most of its new beds in the North (1,179) and Centre (1,617), followed by the Algarve (56 new beds) and Lisbon/Vale do Tejo (56).
Asked why Lisbon and the Tejo region has the lowest number of beds allocated, when it is one of the regions most in need of long-term care places, Vaz Tomé explained that there were fewer applications for funding in this region, which has to do with “the cost of space, the cost of property and the cost of construction”.
“But we still have room to open more applications, so we’re going to try with operators who can provide this response in Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo,” she added.
Minister for Territorial Cohesion Manuel Castro Almeida also attended the signing, explaining that with the latest reprogramming of the PRR, the amount allocated to health rose from around €1.7 billion to €2.025 billion – of which €235 million is earmarked for the integrated long-term care and palliative care network.
He conceded that the government’s signing of contracts with charities and private organisations to finance works may give rise to “some controversy” because the executive is technically only in ‘management mode’ while the country braces for new legislative elections. But he stressed that, “criticism or not, the PRR is to be complied with (…) deadlines have to be met. We can’t stop. We also work for the elderly who need long-term care facilities. And if we don’t work, if we don’t do it now (…) the beds won’t be ready by June 30, 2026, as is necessary. And so we have to do what is necessary. If there are criticisms, we are here to explain,” he said. “The government’s determination is not to slow down the pace of implementation of the PRR”. Indeed, another 800 contracts will be signed in the coming weeks, in different areas, he said.
“It is the government that is in charge, not the civil service, which has to keep working. On the other hand, we have the comfort of the president, who, when he dissolved parliament, pointed out that, to implement European funds, the government should behave as if it were not in management mode. And so that is what we are doing…”
Source: LUSA
