"This is one of the national investments included in the 'Transition Folder' from the previous Government to the current Government of this legislature that deserves the greatest attention and follow-up of the decisions already concluded", reads the motion, which Lusa agency had access to.

For the municipal deputies, "the new hospital of the West is an urgent infrastructure in the region to provide a quality public health service with the capacity to respond to all the people from the West and to provide better working conditions for health professionals".

The motion recalls that "the current hospitals [Torres Vedras, Caldas da Rainha and Peniche] are unable to meet the needs of the users of this region".

The Municipal Assembly of Lourinhã reiterates that the new hospital "should be built in the centre of the 12 municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of the West and in an area served by the A8 motorway", recalling that the previous Government opted for the location in Bombarral.

The motion will be sent to the Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Assembly of the Republic and CIMOeste.

The construction of the new hospital for the region is one of the equipments in the project phase in the health area that is included in the 'Transition Folder' delivered by the Government led by António Costa to the current Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro.

According to the document that Lusa had access to, the healthcare profile and the location were approved in June 2023, "the financing model being under study", the study of which was delivered to the consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in February of this year.

The healthcare profile points to a hospital with 467 beds, of which 381 are for general hospitalization, 74 outpatient offices, 17 chronic dialysis stations, multipurpose day hospital and in the specialties of pediatrics, oncology and mental health.

An operating block with 10 rooms is planned, four of which are intended for outpatients and three for emergencies and maternity with nine delivery rooms and neonatology with nine cribs and six incubators.

The new hospital will have 16 medical specialties, three of which do not exist in the current hospitals of the Oeste Local Health Unit (ULS) - endocrinology, nephrology and rheumatology.

Regarding surgical specialties, it maintains the six already existing.

The four existing Diagnosis and Therapeutics specialties should increase to five, with the inclusion of Pathological Anatomy.

The report also suggests the creation of a technological and biomedical centre to support outpatients and hospitalization, with laboratories for Clinical Pathology, Pathological Anatomy, Immunohaemotherapy and Imaging.

The new hospital should replace the current units of Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche of the ULS Oeste, which serve 300 thousand inhabitants of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã and part of the municipalities of Alcobaça and Mafra.

According to the report, the new hospital should limit the area of influence to Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval, Lourinhã and part of Mafra, excluding the parishes of the municipalities of Alcobaça and Mafra, currently served, and the municipality of Nazaré.

The document served as the basis for the decision to build the future hospital in Bombarral, on a 54-hectare plot of land, considering its centrality in relation to the municipalities it will serve and the size of the land that allows the expansion of the new unit, if this becomes necessary in the future.

The choice of Bombarral was based on accessibility criteria, such as the proximity to exit 11 of Motorway 8 (which crosses the entire West) and to the railway station.

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