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EU17PROFILE
Algarve –
a healthy region
T
Only after the democratic revolution of
April 1974 did health become a right
in Portugal and in the Algarve, and
from then on its progress has been
extraordinary and has no comparison
in today’s world. Examples of this
progress are life expectancy at birth
and infant mortality: life expectancy
at birth was 68 years in 1974, 71
years in 1979 and 78 years in 2006.
In little more than 30 years, life
expectancy at birth has increased
by more than 10 years and infant
mortality shrank from 31 per 1,000 in
1974 to 26 per 1,000 in 1979 and
to 3.9 per 1,000 in 2006.
he southernmost region of
mainland Portugal, the Algarve,
with an area of 4,995.6km2
and a coastal line of 319km, holds a
set of characteristics that differentiates it from the rest of the country
and that has repercussions on its
field of health.
The Algarve has a high level of the
native population ageing – 20% of
its inhabitants are over 65, mainly in
the inland. At the same time, it has
shown a sustainable increase in the
number of births between 1996 and
2007, from 3,600 to almost 4,900.
The number of births from foreign
mothers has grown from 5% in 2000
to 21% in 2007.
Known all over the world as a holiday
destination, the Algarve is the main
tourist region of Portugal thus playing
an important role in the internationalisation of the Portuguese economy.
This region hosts about 10 million
visitors a year. In 2007, this
represented 37% (14.7 million)
stays, which was the most significant
contribution to the total hospitality
income of Portugal (30.5% in 2006).
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© Photo Malin Löfgren
The Algarve has seen a huge demographic growth over the last 15 years
due to a positive migratory balance
with an increase of 35,000 people
over the last six years and a natural
increase over the last four years.
At the moment, the Algarve has
426,386 inhabitants (2007), which
include a high number of legal foreign
citizens: 50,000 are immigrant workers
from Brazil, Ukraine, and Moldova,
Romania and African countries of the
official Portuguese language; and
British, German and Dutch retired
citizens. 70% of the population lives
on the coast while 44% in cities.
An example of efficient
healthcare services…
Tourism and services are the
structuring activities of the economy
of the Algarve; they are responsible
for the growth of wealth production
per inhabitant (€14.900) and of
productivity (€25.600 per capita)
allowing this region to be the second
one in the country’s rating in what
concerns the GDP. Nevertheless, the
region still shows a low capacity to
retain its income with this work being
the population’s main source of
income. A high number of families
still live below the subsistence level.
Just like in other parts of the country,
the Algarve shows cerebrovascular
and cardiovascular diseases, cancer,
HIV/AIDS infection, diabetes, mental
health problems and road traffic
injuries as the principal health problems. This way, health and health
services have a primordial role in the
development and qualification of the
region’s inhabitants.
The Portuguese Health Care System
is a complex network of public and
private health, composed of the
National Health Service (1979),
special public and private insurance
for certain professions (health subsystems cover 20-25% of the population)
and private voluntary health insurance. Despite the development of a
unified publicly financed and provided
healthcare system, some aspects of
the pre-NHS system have persisted.
The health services in the Algarve
are public in their majority. They
employ most of the professionals and
possess most of the equipment: from
the 1,164 physicians registered in
the region, 774 work in the public
sector. The Algarve has 2.8 physicians
per 1,000 inhabitants against 3.5 per
1,000 in Portugal and 3.9 nurses per
1,000 inhabitants against 4.5 per
1,000 in Portugal.
The public health services have two
acute care hospitals, with 776 beds,
1.8 beds per inhabitant, one in
Portimão/Lagos (285 beds), Centro
Hospitalar do Barlavento Algarvio
and another one in Faro (491 beds),
Hospital Central de Faro; a network
of 16 health centres, one for each
EU17PROFILE
order to improve the access,
rationalise the use of resources
and accomplish users’ and
professionals’ satisfaction;
© Photo Luís da Cruz/ RTA
due to myocardial infarction
from 10 to 6%
in a year.
municipality, covering the whole
region; a health rehabilitation centre
located in São Brás de Alportel (54
beds), accredited by the Commission
on Accreditation of Rehabilitation
Facilities; and a network for longterm care (246 beds/2008) created
in 2006, which provides services in
the following areas: short-term
recovery; medium-term care and
rehabilitation, long-term care,
palliative care and domiciliary care
(involving 18 primary care teams).
The provision of medical aid at the
scene, the assisted transport of
patients to the appropriate hospital
and the co-ordination of the various
participants in the system are the
main tasks of INEM, a ministerial
health organisation. In the Algarve, as
well as in Portugal, when a health
emergency occurs, people call 112,
the European emergency number, and
INEM sends an ambulance, a medical
emergency and resuscitation vehicle
or a medical emergency helicopter.
Since August 2007, the Algarve
has had two networks of emergency
ambulances. They are responsible for
the diagnosis and triage of patients
with acute ST-elevation, myocardial
infarction and patients suffering from
a stroke. The network for diagnosis
and triage for these patients is to
expand the performance of primary
percutaneous catheter intervention
(PPCI) in the Interventional
Cardiology Department of Faro’s
Hospital, as it has reduced mortality
Over recent
years, the
Algarve has
accomplished
other health
objectives: it
started the
colorectal
cancer
screening in
2003; the
breast cancer screening in September
2005, which has already included
more than 26,000 women between
50 and 67 years; and the screening
for diabetic retinopathy started in
2000, which included 60% of the
total diabetics in 2008.
In the scope of children and women’s
health, the Algarve has been attentive
to the breastfeeding improvement. In
October 2008, the Centro Hospitalar
do Barlavento Algarvio was acknowledge as a baby-friendly hospital by
UNICEF and by OMS through the
Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
In the scope of health promotion, the
Algarve has actively participated in
the European Network of Health
Promoting Schools (ENHPS), encouraging the strengthening of schools as
health promoters and deepening the
co-operation between health and
education. It has contributed to the
development of the project Healthy
Municipalities, Portimão Municipality
adhered to the Portuguese network
of Healthy Municipalities in 2007,
and, recently, the Algarve has
presented its application to ENRICH
(the European Network of Regions
Improving Citizen’s Health).
In the coming months, the
restructuring of the Portuguese
Health System will:
■ Focus on the projects of the
last three years: Health Centres
Restructuring (Primary Care
Centres) through the creation of
USFs (Family Health Units) in
■
Develop and enlarge the network
of integrated continuous care by
enhancing the home care offer,
increasing home care teams and
raising the number of hospitals
beds to 440 by the end of 2009;
■
Update and qualify the Algarve
hospitals, the accuracy of their
management; improve consultations, surgery accessibility,
and surgery lists; and promote
ambulatory surgeries.
In 2009, the Algarve will hold its
first medicine course created at the
University of Algarve; a four year
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
(MB ChB), designed for graduates in
biological, health, natural or physical
sciences to add to a set of other
graduations, post-graduations and
research centres, which include
biosciences, health technologies,
biomedical sciences, pharmaceutical
sciences, nursing, psychology and
social education. These qualifications
are meant to create the conditions to
set up, in the future, an area of I&D
mainly in biomedical and health
sciences, for the Algarve to become a
motive power for the economic and
social development of the region
together with tourism and services.
Dr Rui Lourenço
Board Chairman
Administração Regional de
Saúde do Algarve IP
Largo de São Pedro nº 15
8000-145 Faro
Portugal
Tel: +351 289 889 900
Fax: +351 289 807 405
[email protected]
www.arsalgarve.min-saude.pt
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