José Manuel Bolieiro specified that this is an initiative of the Red Cross which, through its leaders, "guaranteed installed capacity in the Azores to quickly set up an advanced medical post that will be operationalized this weekend, to be installed in the pavilion of the Escola da Mãe de Deus".

A fire, which broke out in the Ponta Delgada hospital at 09:40 local time on Saturday (10:40 in Lisbon) and was only declared extinguished at 16:11, forced the transfer of all patients who were hospitalized.

At the time of the fire, there were 333 patients in the health facility and it was necessary to transfer 240.

Today, the leader of the Azorean executive visited the Lagoa Health Center, on the island of São Miguel, which now has an emergency service following the closure of the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo.

Bolieiro highlighted that this Red Cross post, with the existing resources in the Azores, "will allow for another great advantage", which is to free up places in the Ponta Delgada Health Center, which will be "fully available for normal care".

The President of the Government mentioned that in addition to the immediate work to assist users, there is "medium-term work to redo the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo with the capacities not only to rehabilitate what was destroyed but also to equip it as a modern 21st century hospital".

"All this work will require a very close relationship between the Regional Government and the Government of the Republic", said the governor, safeguarding that "if we only focus on the patches, we will not be doing a good service to the needs and, above all, to the demands of the Regional Health Service".

According to José Manuel Bolieiro, the National Health Service "must also have a hospital with the size that the Ponta Delgada Hospital has, as an endpoint".

Bolieiro states that he does not waive any source of funding under the European Union, but safeguarded that "there are rules to activate the Solidarity Fund", and will assess whether "after the survey is done" there will be a guarantee of conditions for an application.

The regional secretary for Health and Social Affairs, also speaking to journalists, specified that the Red Cross solution will allow the 41 users in the Ponta Delgada Health Center to be removed.

Manuela Filipe, from the Red Cross, who accompanied the President of the Government on his visit, specified that an office was created to provide support in the delegation of São Miguel, having mentioned that "the local structure [of Terceira island] is very well equipped and can respond immediately", putting "in record time [in Ponta Delgada] a series of equipment".

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