New Loulé-based medical facility will feature Medically Assisted Reproduction Centre and Advanced Oncology Diagnostic Centre
A new Medically Assisted Reproduction Centre is due to be built in Loulé, providing renewed hope to aspiring parents in the Algarve.
The big reveal took place on Tuesday (April 1) during the opening of the high-tech ABC Outreach Building near Loulé’s municipal cemetery, which houses a Clinical Genetics Laboratory, a Medical Entomology Research Centre, and a Biobank.
What came as a surprise was the announcement that another medical facility will be built nearby, featuring the Medically Assisted Reproduction Centre as well as the new Advanced Oncology Diagnostic Centre, which will include a PET scanner (which uses a radioactive tracer to check for signs of cancer, heart disease and brain disorders), an MRI unit and genetic testing, all under the same roof. The facility is due to open next year, official said at the ceremony.
Tiago Botelho, president of the regional health authority ULS Algarve, has hailed the impact of the planned facility, which he says will help many couples achieve their dream of having children. “It will put the Algarve at the frontline of infertility treatment,” Botelho said at the event. The ULS Algarve boss also vowed that the facility will be “even better” than the only other public fertility centre in Portugal, located in Porto, and will benefit from the nearby high-tech labs of the recently inaugurated ABC Outreach Building.
The project marks yet another partnership involving the Algarve Biomedical Centre (ABC), ULS Algarve and the municipal council of Loulé, which continue to work together to boost public health services in the Algarve.
Loulé mayor Vítor Aleixo has praised the developments that this partnership has generated, helping provide “better solutions for the people of the Algarve, both in the fields of oncology and medically assisted reproduction.”
