Luanda - Angolan head of State João Lourenço has announced the construction of Caxito General Hospital in Bucula, northern Bengo province, adding that the infrastructure will be inaugurated in December.
"We're going to inaugurate the Caxito General Hospital later this year, I think by December," said President João Lourenço, who was speaking to the press at the end of a field trip to the construction works of the Viana General Hospital and the Kilamba Burn Hospital in Luanda.
Com a inauguração do Hospital Geral do Caxito, o Titular do Poder Executivo espera uma redução do fluxo de doentes transferidos do Bengo para a capital do país, lacalidades separadas por aproximadamente 65 quilómetros.
The inauguration of the Caxito General Hospital will help reduce the flow of patients transferred from Bengo to the country's capital, which is separated by approximately 65 kilometres.
Cacuaco General Hospital in 2024
The Angolan Head of State also said that Cacuaco General Hospital is scheduled to open in 2024.
Luanda will receive the Cacuaco General Hospital next year, which will be well equipped, while Viana will have it in 2025, he added.
Also in the Angolan capital, the President noted that the construction of several hospital units is planned to meet the needs of a population estimated at ten million inhabitants, the largest population concentration in the country.
The president also said that Luanda will have an Oncological Hospital (near the Dom Alexandre do Nascimento Hospital/Palanca area) and another for traumatised patients, the latter to deal with situations resulting from road accidents that are frequent in the country and affect, fundamentally, the young people.
Also in the pipeline is the construction of an eye hospital in the Kilamba region, in the Luanda municipality of Belas.
Investments in health will continue
In statements to the press, President João Lourenço stated that despite the financial difficulties faced by the country, investments in the health sector will continue throughout the country.
Investments "may stop in other (areas) not in this one", he assured, adding that works in the "health sector will not stop".
He recalled that the aim is to direct the "large resources", previously allocated to the Medical Board for the treatment of Angolan patients abroad, towards the construction of new health infrastructures.
"That's what we are doing", highlighted João Lourenço, adding that the focus on health is the fulfillment of a promise made in his first term, as President of the Republic.
He clarified that the Angolan State did not abolish the Medical Board. Only "it was very reduced to very special cases" and that the authorities recognize that there is no internal capacity to resolve. VC/AL/DAN/NIC
