<![CDATA[ Município de Penamacor garante assistência médica privada a partir de março ]]>

The population residing in the municipality of Penamacor will start to benefit from a municipal service from March to provide assistance to residents with a doctor and a nurse on call through a private company.

The creation of a Municipal Health Card was announced about a year ago and the Mayor of Penamacor, in the district of Castelo Branco, informed that the international competition has been finalized and that the service has been awarded to an insurance company, for 700 thousand euros and a period of two years.

António Beites said that work on the clinic's facilities is underway and he expects the population to be able to enjoy these services in March.

The mayor of that municipality with a socialist majority stressed that the measure is only "a palliative" for the lack of doctors and not a definitive solution.

According to António Beites, two out of every three residents in the municipality do not have a family doctor, a problem that he said is accentuated in a municipality with an aging population.

"This will be an almost palliative approach, but obviously very important in providing a minimum response in terms of health care to our population," he said.

According to António Beites, the Municipal Health Card aims to fill the gaps that continue to exist in Penamacor and which are not being addressed by the National Health Service.

The president said he had met with the Castelo Branco Local Health Unit and said that "there are no short-term solutions in sight" to the problem of the lack of doctors for users in the municipality.