The former Dr. José Maria Antunes Junior Hospital, located near Barro, which has been closed and vacant since 2015, will soon be Torres Vedras Health Park for Multidisciplinary Care, a facility also dedicated to health, a reference on health care, training, teaching and research in medicine and other biomedical sciences.
The agreement, involving Torres Vedras City Council and Lisbon School of Medicine, was signed on June 28, on the location.
According to the document, the Municipality commits to promote the rehabilitation of Dr. José Maria Antunes Junior Hospital building, currently vacant, and surrounding areas, and to ensure sources of funding, national and communitarian, for the implementation of new activities that will be developed there.
Lisbon School of Medicine is committed to create a campus dedicated to teaching, health care and research activities of a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature, to propose potential partners for the establishment of a consortium, notably in the areas of health sciences and health technologies, and to collaborate in identifying alternative sources of funding for the implementation of care, teaching and research outlined for the campus.
At the signing ceremony, Torres Vedras City Mayor thanked Professor Joaquim Ferreira, President of Pedagogical Council at Lisbon School of Medicine, for the concerted efforts that were decisive for the implementation of the agreement.
In this regard, Carlos Bernardes recalled that Torres Vedras intends to affirm his health cluster, by bringing the “knowledge society” to the municipality's territory, while attracting qualified young people. He also stated that this was a “historic day” because it was the first step towards the requalification of a building built in 1570 by Infanta D. Maria (daughter of Portuguese king Manuel I) as a convent, and that also assumed successive functions as asylum, sanatorium and finally hospital.
Professor Fausto Pinto, Dean of Lisbon School of Medicine, praised the initiative and considered it “remarkable for the region and for the country”, fitting into a strategic vision and being "an opportunity that could not be missed". He added that it is the “development of a bold new concept” that can give a new image to academic teaching, “by bringing something new that can serve the community".
Also attended the signing ceremony, the Member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, Dr. Nuno Venade; the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste, Dr. Elsa Baião; the Executive Director of the West South Health Center Group, Dr. António Martins; the Director of Lisbon School of Medicine’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Studies, Professor António Vaz Carneiro; the Administrator and the Technical Director of the Senior Neurological Campus, Eng. João Ferreira and Dr. Natália Pona; the Clinical Director of SOERAD Hospital, Dr. Francisco Crespo; and a representative of CUF Torres Vedras Hospital, Dr. Maria Manuel Noronha; among other guests.
