Government of Minas maintains decision not to continue with works on the Regional Hospital in Juiz de Fora | Wood zone

The Government of Minas maintained the decision to suspend the resumption of works of the Juiz de Fora Regional Hospital. A meeting between the Public Ministry, City Hall and the State was held this Tuesday (23) to discuss the situation.

In a statement, the State Secretariat for Infrastructure, Mobility and Partnerships (Seinfra) said that it presented the real situation of the building at this Tuesday’s meeting, “demonstrating serious errors in the execution of the work that highlight the fragility of the structure and the unpredictability of the project’s completion, in addition to the need for structural reinforcements”.

According to the MP, new meetings will be held to define “new possibilities for the allocation of R$ 150 million to be invested in the health sector”.

Mayor Margarida Salomão (PT) also spoke after the meeting and stated that the Government of Minas Gerais was committed to finding a destination for the resource, “which may even involve the construction of health equipment”.

“We will look for a way to compensate the municipality in relation to this express and repeated withdrawal by the State of Minas in relation to the Regional Hospital”, added Margarida.

On the 12th of this month, Health Secretary Fábio Baccheretti said that the decision to cancel the restart of works was taken after engineers found “very serious errors in relation to the construction process, requiring extensive structural reinforcement, not only increasing the cost of the work, but also increasing the time it takes for it to be completed.”

Prosecutors try to reverse the decision to cancel works at the Regional Hospital in Ju

However, according to the MPMG, there was a commitment made by the State of Minas Gerais based on compensation paid by the mining company Vale, as a form of reparation for the environmental damage caused by the collapse of the dam in Brumadinho.

Also according to the MP, the Government of Minas Gerais had extensive knowledge of the structural adaptation and reprogramming measures necessary for the resumption of works.

The decision not to resume the works would have been presented to the Public Ministry on February 2nd, being “promptly rejected by the prosecutors present at the aforementioned meeting”.

The refusal to accept the decision takes into account the agreements already signed and the fact that no technical study has pointed out the impossibility of structural reinforcement of the building in order to allow the original project to be resumed.

Still according to the MP, irregularities in works carried out with state resources caused huge losses to the State treasury, and an action is studying liability for improbity.

According to the initial project, the Regional Hospital would offer 176 infirmary beds, increasing this capacity by 13% in the city. 40 intensive care units (ICUs) would also be made available, increasing the supply by 19% in relation to those already existing today in the city’s hospitals.

For comparison purposes, according to the Juiz de Fora Municipal Health Ombudsman’s Office, 162 people were waiting for a bed in the city until last weekend, a number that, despite changing every day, tends to remain at a high level, according to the Ombudsman.

With the creation of new beds, the current waiting list could be reduced or even ended, if the Regional Hospital was ready, with the new beds that were planned already in operation.

The work, located on Rua Henrique Burnier, in Bairro São Dimas, close to the bus station, has already had several promised completion dates. Construction began in 2010 and stopped in 2017. There were six years of interruption in service, with approximately 70% of the work completed, according to the Government.

According to the Government of Minas, the suspension of works would result in the transfer of investment to the University Hospital (HU) of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF).

Suspension of works at the Regional Hospital will stop opening 226 vacancies in Juiz de Fora