Algarve cancer center rejected due to increased construction volume

The rejection of the construction project for the Algarve Oncology Centre by Loulé Council was due to the increase in the volume of the work , motivated by the adaptation to the new legislation, the former member of the Algarve Hospital Centre explained this Tuesday.

Paulo Neves, who was speaking at the parliamentary Health Committee, explained that the change to the project was motivated by a change in legislation introduced in 2024, which “requires the creation of bunkers for the installation of equipment with radioactive emissions” in nuclear medicine units.

“There has to be a reserve bunker , which has increased the area, and the bunkers have to be buried . From the moment they have to be buried, in our view and as a legal requirement, it was below the 4,600 square meters that we had requested ”, noted the manager.

Also present at the meeting, the previous administration of the Algarve Local Health Unit (ULS) considered that the land provided by the Faro-Loulé Association of Municipalities to implement the Oncology Center in the region was constructively viable and that there was funding available , with the municipal councils expressing their willingness to make the necessary changes so that the center could be implemented on the site.

The project was rejected by Loulé Council because the planned construction area exceeded the capacity provided for the land provided in the Detailed Plan for the Faro-Loulé City Park and, this Tuesday, Paulo Neves said that he did not think that the bunkers would count towards the construction volume , because they would only serve to install machinery necessary for treating patients on the upper floors.

Given the rejection of the project by the Loulé Council, which offered to begin a review of the Detailed Plan so that the land provided could house the Algarve Oncology Centre, the current chairman of the ULS Board of Directors proposed to the Government that the Southern Oncology Reference Centre (CORS) be integrated into the new Algarve Central Hospital , for which a tender should be launched by the end of the first half of this year.

Tiago Botelho stated that, if CORS were completed by the end of 2024, he would not defend its inclusion in the new hospital.

“Therefore, I proposed to the Secretary of State for Health Management that she consider it and, in my opinion, the most appropriate position would be to stop this project as soon as possible for a simple reason: the central hospital has all the equipment that CORS would have ”, he stated.

In the parliamentary Health Committee of the Assembly of the Republic, both the Mayor of Loulé (Vítor Aleixo) and that of Faro (Rogério Bacalhau) reaffirmed their availability for any change that would allow the center to be accommodated , finding it strange that, in a process that began in 2021, the project only entered the municipality in October 2024.

During the session, PS and PSD deputies exchanged accusations about who was responsible for the delay in the construction process of a center that would serve 3,500 patients per year, providing a response that currently does not exist in the South of the country, preventing them from traveling to Lisbon or Seville to receive treatments and undergo exams in the oncology area.