The cancer patients and their families, as well as the population of the Algarve in general, assist today, with understandable disappointment and indignation, another setback in the fulfillment of the much desired Southern Reference Call (Cors). It is long awaited equipment, essential to ensure specialized health care in the region, avoiding strenuous travel to Lisbon or even Seville, which so many sick and family members continue to be required to do.
After years of expectation and political promises, in April 2023 emerged a light at the bottom of the tunnel: a protocol was signed between the Faro-Loué Municipalities Association and the then Algarve University Hospital Center (currently Local Health Unit of the Algarve – Ulsa), in the presence of the then Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro. At the time, this agreement was celebrated as a decisive step for the realization of Cors in the Parque das Cidades. It is impossible to forget the climate of hope and relief that this commitment generated in the Algarve population, especially in all those who live, directly or indirectly, with the harsh reality of the fight against cancer.
However, this hope turned out to be ephemeral. Less than a year later, the project suffered an unexpected setback: the licensing request was spurred by the Loulé City Council, with the argument that the ceded terrain was classified as a green area at the Park of Cidades detail plan, making it impossible for its Use for the construction of the Cors. Such a basic and absurd planning error that in itself generates indignation and, above all, many interrogations.
How was it possible that, before the signing of the protocol, no one in the Loulé City Council, the Faro-Loué Municipalities Association or the Regional Health Administration verified the urban viability of the land in question? How was a commitment of this importance publicly announced and celebrated without ensuring the basic conditions for their realization? What’s more, if the terrain did not meet legal requirements for this purpose, why the mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo, did not immediately warn of this situation and sought to start steps to find an alternative solution or one Exception regime that allowed the project possible?
The answer to these questions remains. What we have, instead, is a climate of escape from responsibilities and political use. The PS Algarve, in an unbelievable attempt to clean his image, now tries to shake the water from the capote, refuting responsibilities and trying to assign guilty to third parties. It is a behavior that reveals a profound disrespect for the population of the Algarve and the severity of the situation in question. People’s health cannot be used as a political throw weapon. Algarve deserves respect and, above all, deserve solutions.
Given this picture, is it inevitable to question: Are the City Council of Loulé and its president, Vitor Aleixo, truly done everything that was within his reach to unlock this situation? Wouldn’t it have been possible to resort to the figure of the municipal public interest to circumvent the urban constraints? How to explain to the Algarve that what was offered with pomp and circumstance, after all, was worth nothing? How are these successive setbacks to be justified and this manifests a lack of urgency on the part of those who have the duty and the responsibility of defending the interests of the region?
Despite the justifications that can now be presented, nothing erases the feeling of abandonment and disregard that this process conveys to people living and fighting daily with the reality of cancer. The Cors is neither a whim nor an electoral promise. It is a vital need for the Algarve, which must be above any party dispute or paralyzing bureaucracy. Lost time cannot be recovered, but there is still time to do what is right: putting people’s health first and ensuring, once and for all, that the Algarve cancer center is finally a reality.
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