The recommendation, which translates the final text on the draft resolutions presented by the Left Block, PSD and PCP, underlines that at issue is the fulfilment of the commitment assumed in 2007 by the Ministry of Health.

That year, an order signed by the then Minister of Health, Correia de Campos, determined the creation of a Working Group with the responsibility of identifying the characteristics and health care needs of the population in the area of ​​influence of the Hospital de Barcelos.

It also determined that the Working Group would have to present a proposal by March 31, 2008 and that, after approval of this proposal, the elaboration of the functional program of the future hospital unit in Barcelos would begin.

A functional program that should be completed by September 30, 2008.

In the recommendation approved, it is also requested that, without prejudice to financing through the State Budget, the Government finds financing solutions using community funds.

The recommendation also asks the Government to guarantee that the construction and management of the new Hospital de Barcelos will be public and not a public-private partnership (PPP).

Operating in a building owned by Santa Casa da Misericórdia, the Hospital de Barcelos caters to 154,000 inhabitants in the municipality and in Esposende.

In 2007, the Government and the Chamber of Barcelos signed a protocol for the construction of the new hospital in that city.

According to the protocol, the chamber would be responsible for acquiring the land necessary for this purpose.

The hospital project would then be publicly presented by the then Secretary of State for Health, Manuel Pizarro.

However, the process never went any further.

In July 2018, at the Assembly of the Republic, four draft resolutions were approved by all parliamentary groups that called for the construction of a new public hospital in Barcelos.

The documents denounce “an outdated, functionally unbalanced and disjointed physical structure”, which “is far from having the appropriate conditions to provide healthcare in accordance with the best quality and safety standards of the National Health Service”.