Consultations increased with modular hospital

The number of surgeries, consultations and examinations has increased at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES), in Ponta Delgada, since the opening of the modular hospital, the regional secretary for Health and Social Security, Mónica Seidi, reported this Thursday.

“HDES has been significantly recovering its healthcare activity. Good examples of this include the outpatient consultations, after the opening of the modular hospital, which increased its activity by 11%, the number of examinations carried out increased by 31% and the number of surgeries performed increased by 25%”, explained the minister, heard this Thursday at the parliamentary inquiry committee on HDES, meeting in Ponta Delgada.

The head of the Health portfolio in the Azores recalled that the Azorean coalition executive (PSD, CDS-PP and PPM) decided to invest “in the future of HDES” and not in “patches”, giving priority to “ the safety of users and health professionals ”, which is why it decided to invest in the modular hospital and not in specific interventions in the main building.

“This was the first Regional Government to implement a planned action at Ponta Delgada Hospital to modernise and replace completely obsolete equipment that was over 20 years old”, insisted the minister, recalling that the equipment installed in the modular building amounts to 16 million euros.

As he explained, this equipment will be transferred to the future requalified HDES, some of which represent “a great technological advance”, which until now has never been achieved , as is the case of magnetic resonance imaging, with a high degree of definition, or the operating block, which meets all the required requirements.

“A catastrophe had to happen for HDES to have an operating theatre that was up to the demanding challenges of clinical cases that surgeons often have to deal with, combined with new equipment that required training and adaptation by those who use it. All of this was taken care of by the Regional Government”, highlighted Mónica Seidi.

The minister recalled that a hospital “is not just concrete”, and that, in addition to the physical structure, there are also issues related to engineering, electricity, fire safety issues or other technical specificities that need to be taken into account, but, above all, safety issues.

“The decisions taken so far have, naturally, taken these two sides into account: the technical part and the clinical part, and there is no doubt that in situations of uncertainty the clinical part has always prevailed ”, assured Mónica Seidi, adding that “everything that was done was done with caution, so that the safety of users and health professionals was never compromised”.

The regional secretary for Health and Social Security also told the deputies that the Regional Government “is strongly committed” to developing a “new hospital” for Ponta Delgada, which will depend on the preparation of the future functional program.

“Therefore, it must be a document that is as detailed as possible, requiring reflection on the existing hospital and the intended hospital, and the way in which these objectives will be achieved, with a view to creating a health unit that is as efficient, functional and optimized as possible,” said the minister.

In his opinion, the new HDES should have at least 12 operating rooms (instead of the current seven), not only for scheduled activities, but also for urgent and outpatient surgery, and should also have more outpatient consultation rooms, as well as treatment stations.

“It is necessary to combine all these options and choose what best suits the reality of the future HDES. In this sense, the Government understands that this work should be carried out by a monitoring committee, to be appointed by the Governing Council, and which brings together several entities”, he explained.

Mónica Seidi also said that the well-being and safety of users “are above politics and parties”.