The Local Health Unit (ULS) of Gaia/Espinho should be approved by the end of this year, the mayor of Gaia, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, announced this Monday.
“From a legal point of view, the ULS has already been created, but we still have to deal with its operationalization, but I believe that before the end of the year it will be approved,” the mayor told journalists at the end of the municipal executive meeting.
The mayor explained that the ULS will be incorporated into the administration of the Gaia/Espinho Hospital Center, managing the health centers, a function currently under the responsibility of the Health Center Groupings (ACeS).
Without implying added costs for the municipality, the Local Health Unit will enable “better management and coordination between services”, he said. Besides that, he added, it will establish single interlocutors, reinforcing the importance of the hospital.
In Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues’ opinion, the ULS will be “absolutely central” for the municipality to move towards decentralization in the health area.
On April 24, the Executive Board of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) announced that the North and Lisbon and Tagus Valley regions will have seven new ULS, bringing the total to 27 in the country, which will ensure responses to more than half the population.
In a statement, the Executive Board said that work has begun on “the preparation of business plans for seven new Local Health Units”, noting that the São João University Hospital Center, together with the Porto Oriental and Maia/Valongo Health Center Clusters (ACES), will constitute the first ULS that includes a University Hospital Center.
In the North, the ULS of São João, Gaia/Espinho, Barcelos, Dão Lafões (Tondela and Viseu) and Baixo Mondego (Figueira da Foz) will be created. In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, the local health units of the Tagus Estuary (Vila Franca de Xira) and the Middle Tagus will be created.
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