Évora’s New Hospital 58% Over Budget, Alentejo Faces Overcrowding

A single glance at the figures tells the story: the new Central Hospital of Alentejo, rising on the outskirts of Évora, has already swallowed far more money than Portugal first set aside for it and will not open its doors until late-2026 at best. That means another two winters of overcrowding at the ageing Hospital do Espírito Santo and many more trips to Lisbon for surgeries that should have been handled locally.

Budget Shockwaves Reach Alentejo

The Ministry of Health now concedes that the project is running a 58 % cost overrun, lifting the bill from the €150 M announced in 2008 to €237 M today and potentially €298 M once the 2025 State Budget is voted. In a brief appearance before MPs on 18 November, Minister Ana Paula Martins admitted the final tally is still moving. For Alentejo residents, the figure matters because every extra euro will be financed by the same taxes that already fund emergency drought relief, teacher pay rises and the new Lisbon metro ring.

Why the Bill Keeps Climbing

Officials cite a perfect storm: an obsolete functional plan drafted seventeen years ago, tougher seismic-resistance rules, rising construction-material prices, and a string of design changes requested by clinicians who feared the original layout would age badly. A government resolution in March unlocked an additional €32 M to pay for "revisions of prices and complementary works". Civil-engineering lecturers at the University of Beira Interior point out that every time concrete is poured later than scheduled the contractor is entitled to updated price indexes, a mechanism that amplifies overruns on slow-moving public jobs.

Timetable Slips Again

When ground was finally broken in 2021—after more than a decade of political back-and-forth—the construction contract foresaw completion by February 2025. Three postponements later, the official target has slid to December 2026 or early 2027. According to site supervisors, roughly 70 % of the structure is built, but interior partitions, medical-gas networks and digital-imaging suites still wait on pending technical decisions. Every delay widens the gap between paper plans and real-world hospital technology, forcing further redesign.

What It Means for Patients South of the Tagus

The Alentejo’s sole tertiary facility, Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora, already serves around 470 000 people from Portalegre to Beja. Cramped wards, outdated operating theatres and a chronic shortage of specialists have led to longer waiting times. Ministry data show that between January and July 2025 surgeons in Évora performed 1 258 inpatient operations, up 27.7 % year-on-year, yet demand still outpaces capacity. Until the new complex opens, many oncology, cardiology and neonatal cases will continue to be rerouted to Lisbon, adding travel costs for families and strain on capital hospitals.

Who Pays the Extra Millions

Lisbon will pick up most of the tab, but local coffers are not spared. Évora’s 2025 municipal budget sets aside €5 M—about 5 % of all city spending—for access roads, water and sewage links. A separate cabinet order in April earmarked €13.8 M for the same works, yet the municipality must pre-finance expropriations and later claim reimbursement. The Council of Public Finances warns that rising NHS personnel costs—nurses will receive an average 24 % pay hike by 2027—leave limited fiscal room for cost overruns on bricks and mortar. Any shortfall risks squeezing smaller capital projects across the interior.

Government Promises Tighter Control Nationwide

Stung by headlines, the executive has vowed to change how Portugal builds hospitals. Eleven new decrees approved since July establish a Fraud-Combat Commission led by the Judiciary Police, impose a real-time digital dashboard for large-scale health investments and allow regional health units to outsource patients sooner when internal capacity is in doubt. A fresh call for proposals under the Recovery and Resilience Plan invites bids to modernise or erect facilities in Seixal, Barcelos, Beja and Portalegre, but inspectors say funding will be released in tranches tied to verified progress milestones, an approach copied from EU structural-fund rules.

The Road—and the Power Line—Still Missing

For the hospital to function, a new dual-carriageway spur from the A6 motorway and a 15-kV feeder line must be laid across private farmland. Expropriation notices were posted in spring, though landowners dispute valuations. Mayor Carlos Pinto de Sá fears that without a clear electrical-connection design, contractors may finish the main building before power and water arrive. In December last year he warned the cabinet that “a hospital without utilities is a very expensive shell”.

Outlook

Alentejo’s flagship health project is too advanced to abandon and too costly to mismanage any further. Residents will keep paying twice—first through higher national outlays and again through delayed access to modern care—until the concrete, asphalt and wiring finally converge. In the meantime, Évora’s old hospital carries on at full stretch, a daily reminder that inflation and procrastination in public works always land hardest on the patients waiting in line.