Africa-Press – Cape verde. The African Independence Party of Cape Verde (PAICV, opposition) argued, this Tuesday, 5th, that private clinics in São Vicente have greater capacity than the Hospital Baptista de Sousa (HBS) due to the lack of investment from the Government .
This view was defended by the PAICV deputy, elected by the São Vicente circle, Josina Freitas, in anticipation of the parliamentary debate, in the 1st Session of December, with the Minister of Health.
According to the deputy, HBS, which was once a national reference and is the central hospital for the entire northern region, is without coverage for many medical specialties, some of which are extremely important, namely neurosurgery, neurology and pathological anatomy.
“We have central hospitals, which in principle should guarantee the same services to all Cape Verdeans from the north to the south of the country, working at unequal levels. In one we have three specialists in neurosurgery, four in neurology and three in pathological anatomy and in the northern central hospital we did not find any of these specialties”, he criticized.
For the deputy, HBS “urgently needs” equipment, adding that CT, ultrasound and X-ray equipment has been promised since 2021, which until then continues to be waited on.
Furthermore, Josina Freitas said that the operating room needs work, but this will only be possible after the completion of work on the HBS outpatient center.”
“Work on the outpatient center has continued to be stopped for over a year and with a surplus of more than 100 thousand contos. And the Government says nothing about it, showing complete disregard for this situation”, recalled the same source, adding that, despite the Minister of Health having stated in parliament that the problem of the HBS kitchen had already been resolved, in practice the hospital It continues without a kitchen and is already heading towards four years in this situation.
The PAICV deputy also recalled that a health center was promised for Monte Sossego which has not yet been built, and also stated that there is a lack of reagents, there is a shortage of laboratory technicians and many constraints on primary health services.
According to Josina Freitas, the Occupational Therapy Center does “disjointed” work with the other health centers on the island of São Vicente, remembering that the placement of a psychologist at the Bela Vista health center has been waiting for more than six months.
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