The I Speak for Your Health movement is promoting this Thursday a slow march between Caldas da Rainha and Óbidos to protest the decision to build the new West Hospital in Bombarral, in the Leiria area.
This movement advocates the construction of a new hospital on the Caldas da Rainha/Obidos axis and, pending completion of this work, the re-qualification of existing hospitals in order to guarantee decent medical care to the population.
The new Hospital do Oeste will replace the current Centro Hospitalar do Oeste, which includes the Caldas da Rainha and Peniche hospitals in the Leiria area and Torres Vedras in the Lisbon area.
In November, the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Oeste carried out a study commissioned by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa to help the government choose a site for the new hospital, a document that listed Bombarral, the neighboring municipality of Óbidos, as the ideal location.
Later in March, the councils of Caldas da Rainha and Óbidos submitted a technical opinion to the minister challenging the criteria used in the study, arguing that other criteria should be taken into account and that the new hospital should be located at the confluence of the two counties.
In June, the minister announced that a new hospital would be built in Quinta do Falcão, in Bombarral, replacing three hospitals in the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste.
These units have a zone of influence consisting of these municipalities, as well as the municipalities of Óbidos, Bombarral (both in the Leiria region), Cadaval and Lourinha (in the Lisbon region), as well as part of the municipalities of Alcobaça (Leiria) and Mafra. (Lisbon), covering 298,390 inhabitants.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal

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