Albufeira’s population grows exponentially during summer months
The mayor of Albufeira has called for more ambulances to be deployed to the municipality during the summer.
The reasoning is that the borough’s population grows exponentially during the summer months, putting extra pressure on its emergency medical services, José Carlos Rolo explained in a statement to the press.
The mayor recalled that the World Youth Day will take place in Portugal and will be “a tourism phenomenon not only in Lisbon, but in the whole country,” and in Albufeira as well.
“Coming to Portugal in the middle of summer and not visiting the Algarve is, for many, the same as going to World Youth Day and not seeing the Pope,” said Rolo, who has already requested extra funding from the government during a meeting last week with Margarida Tavares, secretary of state for health promotion.
“It’s a legitimate demand. From our part, we are open to collaborate with the government, because in reality, what has been done in this area is not enough,” said José Carlos Rolo, considering that this is an area in which “no cover-up operations can be done” because “human life is at stake and, consequently, the image of a country and a region” that has tourism as its main activity.
In addition to the number of ambulances, the mayor also wants to see the “respective equipment and human resources” strengthened to avoid situations that are reported in the media about cases of people who “lose their lives on the way to hospital, due to long delays”, he said.
The mayor also expressed his “satisfaction for the commitment” shown by the secretary of state for health promotion, who has already visited the town after José Carlos Rolo had asked for the strengthening of resources in the meeting they both had in Lisbon.
The mayor hopes that the dialogue with the ministry will continue and that a response will be given as soon as possible for the emergency medical resources to be increased, stating that “human life is above any economic interest”.
Source: Lusa
