The President of the Regional Government announced that CUF Açores Hospital will perform heart surgery, avoiding the need to send patients to the mainland or Madeira.

"With the increased capacity that CUF Açores will guarantee, we can have heart surgery here in the Azores, without the patient having to travel outside the region. It is a list of around 120 patients," José Manuel Bolieiro announced at the presentation of CUF Açores Hospital.

According to the president, by the end of October the region will have this offer "guaranteed and duly registered", thus avoiding the need for patients to travel to the mainland and Madeira, as is currently the case.

On the occasion, the President of the Regional Government also highlighted the "rational and intelligent complementarity" between the public and private health sectors. "Needs and ambitions are always greater than the resources available. Hence the opportunity for this complementarity to be rational and intelligent. What must move us in this complementarity, public, social and private, is good service," he said.

On the other hand, he emphasized the role that this private hospital could play in the growth of health tourism.

The chairman of CUF's board of directors, Salvador de Mello, reinforced his commitment to "quality healthcare for Azoreans".

"CUF has a long history of providing excellent healthcare. It is to provide excellent healthcare that we are in the Azores, and we are looking to the long term. We are proud of the past and it is with great commitment that we now begin our activity here," he said.

For his part, the chairman of CUF's Executive Committee, Rui Diniz, pointed out that the International Hospital of the Azores (HIA) was "an example of how the public and private sectors have been collaborating, having provided support to the Regional Health Service since its inauguration in the middle of the pandemic", considering that this guarantees "trust and prestige near the population".

For this new phase, Rui Diniz believes that the future is "very promising". "What we want is, on the one hand, to maintain this proximity, this local knowledge, but to combine it with the experience of the entire CUF network. We want to guarantee that, through the CUF Açores Hospital, everyone who entrusts us with their health will be able to access the entire CUF network," he said. "We believe that our activity cannot be restricted to the provision of healthcare but must also extend to a broader contribution to the community. We want to underline our commitment to working with the archipelago's public, private and social institutions," he added.

Last March, CUF acquired HIA, now called Hospital CUF Açores, located in Lagoa. This private health unit has more than 400 employees and offers 34 medical and surgical specialties. It has a capacity of 70 inpatient, intensive care and neonatal beds.