Algarve councils refuse to pay for central hospital access roads

A dispute has emerged over who should pay for the roads and mobility infrastructure serving the long-awaited Algarve Central Hospital, with the municipalities of Loulé and Faro rejecting suggestions they should foot the bill.

Both councils say they recently received a letter from the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) indicating they could be expected to finance the access infrastructure required for the new hospital, despite arguing that it is the State’s responsibility.

The issue had already been raised in January, when the agreement to move forward with the hospital project was signed. Both municipalities say they made it clear at the time that they would provide the land for the hospital but would not assume responsibility for funding the surrounding infrastructure.

“If there have to be improvements to mobility around the hospital, the Municipality of Loulé cannot simply be expected to assume responsibility for works worth millions of euros. We’re talking about a blank cheque. That is not acceptable,” Loulé mayor Telmo Pinto told SIC.

He argued that the hospital is a regional and national project and questioned how local authorities could justify diverting funds from priorities such as housing.

“What do we tell our residents when we have so many needs in the municipality, yet we are expected to shoulder the burden of a regional project? That is unthinkable and unacceptable,” he said.

Pinto added that Loulé had already made a significant contribution to the project and warned against turning local authorities into “scapegoats”.

Faro mayor António Pina echoed those concerns, saying the municipalities had always understood their contribution would be limited to making the site available.

“We told the Ministry of Health from the outset that we would only provide the land, and that alone was already an additional responsibility because that has not happened elsewhere in the country,” he said.

According to Pina, the land already acquired for the hospital is worth more than €10 million, while the two municipalities must still purchase two additional plots at an estimated cost of around €500,000.

“The hospital is a national responsibility,” he stressed.

The two municipalities argue that the State has taken a different approach elsewhere in the country. They point to the new Todos os Santos Hospital in Lisbon, where Lisbon City Council sold the land to the State for almost €14 million in 2010, followed by a further €5 million in 2024 when the site was expanded. By contrast, Faro and Loulé jointly spent more than €6 million in 2008 to acquire the land for the Algarve Central Hospital near the Algarve Stadium.

Another example is the new Central Alentejo Hospital in Évora, where the municipality agreed to build the access roads only after the Ministry of Health committed to reimbursing the estimated €14 million cost of the works.

The international tender for the design, construction and operation of the new Algarve Central Hospital under a public-private partnership is currently underway. According to SIC, prospective bidders have already submitted more than 1,000 questions, including queries about who will be responsible for the surrounding infrastructure, which is not included in the tender documents.

The project is expected to be awarded in 2027, with the hospital currently scheduled to open in 2031.

The Ministry of Health has not clarified how it intends to resolve the funding issue.