The deputy João Paulo Graça, elected by the Algarve, today demanded the rigorous discharge of the episodes in the emergency rooms of the Hospital de Portimão, defending urgent measures and accountability of those involved.
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12/11/2026
by
Lusa
O congressman João Paulo Graça, elected by the Algarve, today demanded the “strict investigation” of the episodes recorded in the urgency of the Hospital de Portimão, defending urgent measures and accountability of those involved.
“ It is unacceptable for vulnerable people, many of them elderly, to stay for hours waiting for medical assistance, which generates fears among citizens when they need to resort to emergency services ", said João Paulo Graça.
The deaths, after several hours of waiting, of two elderly people who appealed in October and November to the emergency room of Portimão Hospital without allegedly having been attended by a doctor.
For the deputy of the Aquida, users seek in the hospital care, treatment and hope for recovery, “cannot a health service become an additional source of concern”.
John Paul Graça also warned about the conditions in which health professionals perform functions, “often subject to enormous pressure and insufficient resources”.
According to the deputy, the Algarve “can no longer be treated as a second-rate region” in health access, considering that Algarves have the right to health care “worthy, timely and safe”.
“Health cannot depend on luck, on the time when you arrive at the hospital or on the occasional availability of professionals,” he said.
The person responsible concluded that the Hospital de Portimão “needs answers and the Algarve with respect”, arguing that citizens should be able to turn to hospitals with confidence that they will find adequate health care.
On Monday, the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, also referred to the case of a child, who died at Faro Hospital, after being transferred from the Hospital of Portimão, advancing that she suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest “at home still”.
On Tuesday, the secretary-general of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, said he had learned of a fourth death at the hospital in Portimão, “for lack of care due in the health system”.
Following these cases, the Minister of Health dismissed the president of the Algarve's ULS, Tiago Botelho.
The urgency of the Hospital de Portimão registered 387 complaints in the first 10 months of this year, more than the 334 recorded throughout the year 2025, according to data from the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS).