"It has been over a week since the PS parliamentary group made itself available to be part of the solution. What we have heard from the Regional Government is an attempt to manage this issue as if it were a faction and not as a regional emergency," said Vasco Cordeiro.

The socialist leader, who met today, accompanied by PS/Açores deputies, with the board of directors of HDES, at the hospital facilities in Ponta Delgada, considered that "it was expected" that the Regional Government had already released an estimate of the damages caused by the fire at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo.

The fire at HDES, in Ponta Delgada, which broke out on May 4th, forced the transfer of all patients who were hospitalized to various locations in the Azores, Madeira and mainland Portugal.

Vasco Cordeiro said that "it is understandable that, 15 days later, there is no rigorous survey of the costs of this situation", but "what is expected is that the estimates have already been made public, what it will cost in 2024".

The leader of PS/Açores accuses the Azorean executive of "instrumentalizing information, reserving it only for some", not having the "transparency and clarity that the circumstance demands and the interests of the Azoreans impose".

"There is information that is not being shared with all political parties. The obligation of the Government of the Azores is to be transparent in this process," he said.

Vasco Cordeiro, who will put forward proposals next week to address the damage caused by the fire, within the scope of the assessment of the 2024 Plan and Budget, considered it "positive and reasonable" that the "modality of participation of the Government of the Republic [in the costs of the fire damage] be the same as its participation in Hurricane Lorenzo".

"I think it is very good that this understanding has been reached, that there is this commitment on the part of the Government of the Republic," he stressed.

Today, the president of the Regional Government, José Manuel Bolieiro (PSD), told journalists that there will be funding from the Republic for the works to be carried out at HDES and defended that the co-financing should be 85% of the value of the planned intervention, which is yet to be defined.

"There is a history in terms of commitment that, in the case of Hurricane Lorenzo [which hit the region in October 2019], the State committed to compensate for the repair of the damage by 85%. This is the proposal that I have for the Government of the Republic, in this case, also assuming [the co-financing of the expense] in a supportive manner," said the leader of the Azorean executive at the end of a hearing with the board of the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP), held at the Palácio de Santana, in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel.

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