Alentejo will be completely covered by Local Health Units (ULS), starting from January 2024, with the fourth unit coming into operation in the region, which includes the Évora Hospital and 14 health centres.
“With the creation of the Central Alentejo ULS, all entities in the region now have this model,” explained the head of the Alentejo Regional Health Department (ARS), María Filomena Méndez.
The new ULS, which resulted from the grouping of the Health Centers Group (ACES) of Central Alentejo and the Hospital Espírito Santo de Évora (HESE), joins the units of Norte Alentejano, Baixo Alentejo and Litoral Alentejano.
According to the government decree establishing the ULS in the central Alentejo and others, published this week in Diário da República, the entities now formed will enter into force on January 1, 2024.
The ULS company in the center of Alentejo will, according to the government decree, consulted by Losa, have the nature of a public commercial entity and its headquarters will be in Largo do Father da Popresa, in Évora, that is, in the HESE building.
In statements to Lusa newspaper, the president of ARS do Alentejo indicated that the board of directors of ULS do Alentejo Central will now be appointed.
He stressed that “this model will work, with the appropriate financing formula, to enhance integration between primary health care and hospitals.”
The official also considered that there would be “an improvement in the population’s access to health care and also greater efficiency in terms of management, that is, with lower costs and better outcomes.”
Among other changes, this decree law provides for the renaming of ULS in Norte Alentejano to ULS in Alto Alentejo.
ULS consolidates the care provided by health centers and hospitals into the same entity.
According to the government, “each ULS unit focuses on organizing human, financial and material resources, and facilitating the access and movement of people, according to their needs, between health centers and hospitals.”
