The Algarve region’s health service management has announced the attendance figures for its summertime mini-clinics at the Algarve's most popular beaches.
According to the ARS Algarve, in July and August a total of 5,268 visits were made to the 31 Beach Health Units run by health service staff and personnel from the Portuguese Red Cross.
Of these visits, 2,869 were for cuts and abrasions, 782 were due to puncture wounds from Weaver fish and insect bites, 899 for blood pressure measurements, 285 for injections and 297 for blood sugar tests.
From this influx, 136 people were sent on to a hospital or nearby health service clinic.
The beach units with the highest number of visits were at Armação de Pêra and the Armona and Culatra islands in the Ria Formosa.
Seven of these posts, the ones in Praia da Rocha, Armação de Pera; Rocha Baixinha, Quarteira, Ilha da Culatra, Ilha de Tavira and Monte Gordo, will stay open for business until September 16th.
The idea, that has been highly successful in practice, is that beachgoers can be treated at the beach for conditions such as sunstroke, blood pressure problems and bites, grazes and other problems that otherwise would mean queuing up at the region’s overburdened hospitals and clinics.
