Beja. PCP questions Government about hospital redevelopment

The PCP parliamentary group questioned the Government about the “status” of the renovation and expansion works at the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital in Beja, and whether they will be completed by 2029.

In a question submitted to the Assembly of the Republic (AR) this Monday, the PCP parliamentary group argued that, during the discussion on the specifics of the proposal to expand the Beja hospital in the State Budget for 2025, an “amendment” was approved which ensured “that the Government would begin the respective work during the current year” .

The PCP, in the document addressed to the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, recalled that the project to remodel and expand the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital “is fundamental for the health response in the district of Beja” and “an important measure in reversing the lack of capacity to retain health professionals in the district, by bringing better working conditions and professional development”.

According to the communists, after the project to redefine the healthcare profile of the aforementioned hospital, through the Hospital Master Plan, the proposal to reorganize the functional program and the economic-financial feasibility study, in July 2024, the Government was submitted “the report identifying the smallness, obsolescence and inadequacy of the current facilities”.

These conditions, as stated by the PCP, mean that the hospital cannot ensure “the provision of quality healthcare to the population in the area of influence of the Baixo Alentejo Local Health Unit (ULSBA)”.

Thus, in the document, the parliamentary group, faced with “the difficulties in accessing health care [which] continue to worsen”, and “because the State Budget law for 2025 has been in force for more than six months”, states that “it is important” that the Government clarifies “the current status” of the project, namely what measures have already been taken to ensure the start of construction work on the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital.

The PCP also questions the planning that is being developed so that the construction of the new building and the subsequent rehabilitation of the existing infrastructure are completed by 2029.

The renovation and expansion of the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital has an estimated cost of 118 million euros and works are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026.