Government is looking at the functioning of the Algarve Central Hospital management area and will report its findings at the end of the first quarter.
Recommendations will be provided in a report that aims to find out what went wrong and what needs to be done to fix the damage.
The Health Minister Adalberto Campos Fernandes was responding to a question from the Algarve MP, Luís Graça at a Health Committee meeting.
The minister was asked about the government's willingness to proceed with an independent assessment into the Algarve hospitals’ management over the past four years.
Luís Graça brought up the recent case of the death of a patient transferred to Coimbra from Faro who later died as Lisbon referred him on due to lack of a specialist on duty.
The minister was question on the measures in place to attract more doctors to the Algarve and on how current vacancies in remote areas can be filled.
Adalberto Campos Fernandes admitted that the Algarve is a problem within the National Health Service and that the report needs to identify the issues that have made the Algarve such a difficult area to manage.
The Minister of Health announced plans for strategic partnerships with business and science in order to promote "virtuous coalitions" and create value in science and biomedical research.
This could be through the creation of a Medical Academic Centre in the Algarve, similar to the Hospital Santa Maria in Lisbon, and the adoption of positive discrimination measures in career progression to attract and retain doctors in the Algarve region.
Luís Graça said the measures announced by the Minister of Health are crucial for the recovery of the National Health Service in the Algarve region after four years of destruction in the local National Health Service.
