The leader of the party structure announced that the PS/Azores parliamentary group will request an urgent debate in the Azorean parliament next week on the fire at the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital in Ponta Delgada.
Francisco César said that the initiative aims to “ask the Regional Government for explanations on all matters” related to the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital incident.
The PS/Azores leader said that the parliamentary group would also call engineer João Mota Vieira, one of the people responsible for the technical investigation report, nurse Francisco Branco from the Azorean trade union, doctor Carlos Ponte from the Azorean Doctors’ Council of the Portuguese Medical Association, and rheumatologist Guilherme Figueiredo to the Social Affairs Committee “as a matter of urgency.”
“We need more clarification and details,” he said at a press conference in Ponta Delgada.
On that occasion, Francisco César identified the need for information on “healthcare safety,” the “functioning of the infrastructures” that currently support the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, the origin of the accident, and “what has been done and what is to be done.”
For the Socialist, now is the time for “scrutiny and clarification” and for the Regional Government to “present work and solutions”.
For the PS, “there have been several statements from the government that are not in line with reality,” generating a “repeated lack of confidence in the word” of the executive.
Based on recent public statements by figures with responsibilities in the public sector, according to Francisco César, one can “deduce the suspicion of poor decision-making in the present” and a “repeated inability to prepare for the future.”
In terms of healthcare safety, the Socialists believe there is an “inability to respond to the alternative structures that have been created in the meantime,” and there are also concerns about the process of rebuilding the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital.

in Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. We thank FLAD in Lisbon, Portugal, for supporting PBBI-Fresno State.