Mission Hospital "Porto." is ready. First infected patients are due to arrive on 13th April

320 beds expanded to the two building floors at the Super Bock Arena - Pavilhão Rosa Mota, the Mission Hospital Porto. that is totally equipped with the comfort and safety required both for patients and health workers. 

Everything is clearly set up - the clean areas and the contaminated areas, the lounge spaces, meals room, shower rooms, PPE areas and a pharmacy.

The Field Hospital Porto. was set up in 17 days and it starts to receive the first infected patients as of 13th April.

The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira and the Secretary of State in charge of the emergency coordination in the Northern region of the country, Eduardo Pinheiro have visited the Mission hospital ?facilities.

They were accompanied by the president of the Northern Region Medical Association, António Araújo and the board chairmen of the São João and Santo António Hospitals.

Inside the facilities, there was a training session to circa 30 volunteers, doctors, nurses, and assistants.

The Mission Hospital is divided in 27 wards (most have six beds), a command centre, a canteen and a lounge area in the zero floor. The ground floor provides 160 beds, shower rooms and rest areas equipped with small domestic appliances, namely fridges and microwaves, a warehouse and an economat area and a pharmacy.

The entire dome has an air conditioning system that ensures comfortable room temperature to an indoor height of 30 metres.

"The effort to fight the pandemic has to be a collective effort, at several levels. I place the emphasis on the role of the Municipality of Porto, especially this backup effort that is so important to the Hospitals of São João and Santo António", affirmed Eduardo Pinheiro at the end of the visit.

These first days, these facilities will accommodate 12 to 16 patients, which will gradually increase. We will probably treat circa 20% of the patients that are at the city hospitals", stated the president of the Northern Region Medical Association.

Super Bock Arena - Pavilhão Rosa Mota will receive three types of patients; "the asymptomatic patients that do not have the household backup, asymptomatic patients with a pre-existing health condition other than respiratory, and who are in need of basic medic care, and patients that are recovering from the infection by Covid-19", explained António Araújo, who will be in charge of the Hospital's coordination.

Pathways inside the Mission Hospital are well defined and marked to minimize the risk of contagion. There is a red zone and a green zone.

"All health professional working at the Mission Hospital "Porto." are volunteers", stated Rui Moreira. This hospital was firstly set up to receive senior citizens from nursing homes, who are being tested in the scope of the testing initiative by Porto City Hall. However, the Seminário de Vilar made its institution available to accommodate these citizens, as the Youth Hostel has also offered its premises to receive these elders.

As such, the Mission Hospital set up at Super Bock Arena - Pavilhão Rosa Mota was redirected to accommodate infected patients, thus alleviating the burden on the two public hospitals in the city. The Hospital Centre of Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho is also part of this endeavour, as of last week.

"There is a great deal yet to be done, this is a collective effort. I hope this hospital will not be crowded with patients and I hope it is jot open till 31st July. Let's not rely on luck, we must prepare for the worse and that is what the City Hall has been doing", Rui Moreira stated.

30 ventilators donated by Chinese multimillionaire entrepreneur

Jack Ma, cofounder and Executive President of the Alibaba Group delivered 30 ventilators to the Municipality of Porto. These ventilators are already in town.

This donation means that each public hospital of Porto received 15 ventilators each.

Also thanks to the good relationship between the Municipality of Porto and China, through the Embassy and the Representative of the Macau Government in Portugal, Alexis Tam, the Municipality received 5.000 tests donated by Fosun Foundation and Gestifute, which supported the only testing programme for the elder in retirement homes in Portugal and which is implemented by Porto City Hall.

This integrated strategy by the Municipality of Porto featured the setting up of the first drive-thru testing in the country, located at the Queimódromo.

It is worth mentioning that the Missão Continente supports the Mission Hospital Porto. with food, hygiene and cleaning goods and also portable videogames.

There is a fundraising campaign to support the Mission Hospital Porto., which was launched last week, with the help of RTP
via phone service 761 10 10 50. Each call guarantees that 1 euro is donated to a bank account especially created to meet this goal (PT50078101129112000018026).