Socialists question whether new West Hospital advances in this legislature

“Hfor several years awaited and successively object of studies, evaluations and decisions that have not yet reached the stage of implementation”, the new West Hospital is pointed out by socialists as “a structuring infrastructure” that deputies want to know if it will advance during the current legislature.

In a question to the Health Minister, Ana Paula Martins, they question whether the evaluation process on the location of the hospital has been completed and when the conclusions will be known.

In October 2025, the Socialist Party deputies had already asked the government about the state of the process as to the location, the launch of the competition, the timing, the financing and the execution model.

In response, dated December 12, 2025, the Ministry of Health informed that the decision on the location would be made after a “in-depth and reasoned evaluation process”, with normal procedures in progress and awaiting its conclusion.

In August of this, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, said that the government intended to resume the process in September and make a final decision on the construction of the West Hospital, remind the deputies in the question, in which they also mention the commitment of the health minister that “the process would be moving from September and that the construction would be carried out through a public-private partnership (PPP)”.

Almost a year after the previous parliamentary question and nine months after the government’s reply, “it is important to clarify what was actually done, where the process is at and what is the concrete timetable for its implementation”, the Socialists say in the question now put.

In 2023, the then Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro (PS), announced that the new hospital in the West would be built in Quinta do Falcão, Bombarral, in the district of Leiria.

The location in Bombarral was challenged by the municipality of Caldas da Rainha, which presented new studies to support that the new unit should be built at the confluence of this municipality with that of Óbidos.

With the location remaining “without a known public decision”, socialist Members want to know whether the government keeps in mind the location of Quinta do Falcão in Bombarral, or whether it is evaluating other locations, taking into account the studies promoted by the municipality of Caldas da Rainha.

They also question what concrete timetable the government assumes, “from this moment on, for the implementation of the West Hospital”, namely, the timetable for the decision of location, definition of the care profile and dimensioning of the unit, launch of the procedure, award of the PPP, preparation of the project, start of the work and start of operation.

“ Can the government ensure that, during this legislature, the current phase of studies and misdefinition will be effectively exceeded and that the procedures necessary for the construction of the new West Hospital will be initiated?", they ask, urging the executive to proceed with a deadline for the final decision and for the beginning of the work.

The new hospital should replace the units of Caldas da Rainha and Peniche, in the district of Leiria, and Torres Vedras, in the district of Lisbon, and serve about 300,000 inhabitants of these municipalities and those of Bombarral, Cadaval and Lourinhã.