"The advanced medical post will be optimised and we will not neglect the need to have a field hospital, although it will be a temporary situation and, on the table, is the possibility of moving forward with the construction of a model hospital on land adjacent to the Ponta Delgada hospital", said Mónica Seidi.

The regional secretary, who was speaking after the first meeting of the working group created to assess the damage to the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES), which suffered a fire on the 4th and became inoperable, explained that the modular hospital, to be created, will allow for "a temporary situation of re-establishing more specialised services".

"It is a possibility that the Government is analysing", she stressed, adding that the modular hospital, a model used at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be for a "more clinical area", but "does not replace in any way the projection" that is intended in terms of intervention in the HDES.

On the other hand, the Regional Secretary for Health of the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition Government said that the capacity of the "Advanced Medical Post, installed in the Carlos Silveira Pavilion, in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, will be increased.

According to Mónica Seidi, the space currently has between 30 and 34 beds and there will be a reinforcement of 30 more.

"We have already contacted the Red Cross and it is expected that the 60 beds will be set up on Saturday", she explained.

The Health Minister in the Azores also stressed that, due to the fire in the largest health unit in the Azores, a "daily reorganisation" has been taking place.

The hospital in Ponta Delgada "has capacity for around 400 beds and, at this moment, this capacity is not installed on the island", despite "all the openness of the most diverse institutions to adapt services and set up inpatient beds and wards", she said.

Mónica Seidi also said that there is the possibility of surgeries being performed at the Clínica do Bom Jesus, in Ponta Delgada, since the institution has made available "two operating room suites".

"We do not have a single physical structure that can replace the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo and we will have to think, in a phased manner, about how we are going to develop the activity", she stressed.

The regional secretary also assured that the CUF hospital, located in Lagoa, on the island of São Miguel, has made available "two rooms so that professionals from the Ponta Delgada hospital can perform surgeries" at the private health unit.

"We have received from the CUF group all the availability and the group has decided that in the first ten days after the fire it will not charge any fees to patients of the Regional Health Service who were treated in the hospital, nor to the teams of the Ponta Delgada hospital", revealed Mónica Seidi.

In the second phase, from 15 May, an agreement will be made between the Regional Secretariat for Health and the CUF group so that a way can be found to charge for the costs, she added.

The fire at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, which broke out on 4 May, forced the transfer of all patients who were hospitalised to various locations in the Azores, Madeira and the mainland.

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