According to idealista, “The Government, in 2025, will take the necessary steps to ensure the procedures for the construction and equipment of four hospital infrastructures”, including the new Oeste hospital as stated in the OE2025 proposal submitted to the Assembly of the Republic on 10 October.

The Ministry of Health clarified that 265.1 million euros were registered for the new hospital in the West.

“The current Government has for the first time foreseen in the National Health Service Multi-Year Plan an allocation of 265 million euros for the construction of the new Oeste hospital and this is positive”, reacted last week PSD deputy Marco Claudino in parliament, before recalling that “its location still needs to be finalised and definitively defined” by the current Government.

In October, at a meeting with the 12 mayors of the Intermunicipal Community (CIM) of the West, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, assured that the competition for hospital infrastructure should be launched “during the first half of 2025”.

At the time, the president of CIM Oeste, Pedro Folgado (PS), told the Lusa news agency that “ the hospital will be built ”, but that the Ministry of Health had not yet decided on the location of the new facility, nor on the financing model.

This is despite the fact that, in July, parliament recommended to the government that it “ensure the construction and operation of the new public hospital in the West during the current legislature” and that it decide on the financing method “before the discussion of the State Budget for 2025”.

What area will the new hospital cover?

The construction of the new Oeste hospital is part of the 'Transition Portfolio' handed over by the socialist government led by António Costa to the current prime minister, the social democrat Luís Montenegro.

The assistance profile and location were approved in June 2023, “with the financing model being studied”, which was delivered to the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in February of this year.

The new hospital should cover the area of ​​influence of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã, excluding Nazaré and the parishes of Alcobaça and Mafra currently served.

The decision by the previous executive to build the future hospital in Bombarral, on a 54-hectare plot of land, took into account its central location in relation to the municipalities it will serve and the size of the land that allows for the expansion of the new unit, if necessary.

The choice of Bombarral was also based on accessibility criteria, such as its proximity to exit 11 of Motorway 8 (which crosses the entire West) and the railway station.

The new hospital should replace the current units in Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche of the West Local Health Unit, which serves 300,000 inhabitants of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã and part of the municipalities of Alcobaça and Mafra.