The president of the Order of Doctors, Carlos Cortes, today warned the situation of patients on a surgical waiting list at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES), stressing that “it is a problem” aggravated by the fire that occurred in 2024.
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29/10/2026
by
Lusa
O bastonário da Ordem dos Médicos, Carlos Cortes, today warned about the situation of patients on surgical waiting list at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES), stressing that “it is a problem” aggravated by the fire that occurred in 2024.
“ I confess that I was waiting for the resumption of a full activity to take place much faster [after the fire], because what is at stake here are not exactly numbers and an architecture project, but people and their health, their life,” he said to journalists, leaving a meeting with the clinical director of HDES in Ponta Delgada.
The bastonary highlighted the “perspective of the future”, with the reconstruction of HDES, but stressed that “it is also necessary to look at the present, because people today need these health care” and is “walking by snail and health cannot wait”.
Carlos Cortes identified that the surgical, medical, complementary diagnostic areas “are suffering the impact of a disaster that happened two years ago, from which it is taking time to start”.
The president considered that HDES needs more doctors, nurses, diagnostic staff, as well as other human resources, since there is “a structural problem of a hospital that needs to be reinforced” and that even before the fire of 2024, “it was already too small” to meet the needs.
Carlos Cortes highlighted the need for more surgical blocks and inpatient beds and, although recognizing that the problems of the region are cross-sectional throughout the country, he recalled that in the Azores there are specificities derived from geographical dispersion.
“ While on the continent a patient can easily be transferred from one hospital to another, catching the airway in situations of greater urgency”, in the Azores “there must be additional guarantees, with end-of-line care,” he said.
Carlos Cortes also spoke of the need to invest in the State Budget in health care, considering that HDES has to invest “still in the disaster situation that is going through, because it is not giving a full answer”.
According to the monthly newsletter of the Central Unit for the Management of Inscriptions for Surgery of the Azores, published by the Regional Health Directorate, “in July 2026, a total of 13,945 users were waiting in LIC [surgical waiting list]”.
It is the highest value since there are records available on the website of the Regional Health Directorate (2017).
On October 13, the Regional Government revealed that the number of consultations and complementary diagnostic tests increased this year in HDES, although the hospital unit operated in a modular building after the fire of 2024.
“ We have an increase of almost 8% in total consultations. On August 31 this year, we have more than 30,000 consultations, plus 10% of first consultations”, said Regional Health Secretary, Mónica Seidi, during a hearing at the Social Affairs Committee of the Regional Legislative Assembly.