The Council of the Government has approved the appointment of the members who will make up the new boards of Horta and Ponta Delgada hospitals.
 
For the Administration Board of the Horta Hospital Administration, the Government has appointed the following members: João Luis da Rosa Morais as President, Rui Manuel Cabral Suzano as Clinical Director and Maria Ajuda das Neves as Nurse-Director. With regard to the Administration Board of Hospital Divino Espírito Santo Hospital, the appointed members are as follows: Fernando Miguel Pacheco de Melo Mesquita Gabriel as President, Fernando José Dias Carneiro as Clinical Director, Nadine Pironet as Nurse-Director, and Cláudia de Almeida Silva Fonseca Macedo and Madalena Arruda da Silva Melo as remaining members.
 
The decision was announced today by the Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for Parliamentary Affairs, Isabel Rodrigues, during the presentation of the press release from the Council of the Government that met in Ponta Delgada on August 5.
 
Also in the area of health, the Government of the Azores has decided to authorise the launch of a public call for tender for the awarding of a contract work to expand and remodel the Emergency Services of Divino Espírito Santo Hospital in Ponta Delgada.
 
The work has a base price of 3.8 million Euros and a completion period of 14 months. The intervention is intended to expand the response capacity to patients as well as to provide the conditions for an increase in the quality of the involvement and motivation of technical teams, through the adaptation of various functional areas of this department, the creation of new and more suitable spaces and the improvement of working conditions.
 
The Government of the Azores has also decided to award the contract work for the remodelling and expansion of Calheta Health Centre to the company Afavias - Engenharia e Construções – Açores.
 
This contract work represents an investment value of 1 million Euros and 289 thousand Euros; it has a deadline of 360 days.
 
This work will enable the modernisation of the existing buildings, ensure improved safety, hygiene and comfort for professionals and patients, provide better conditions in the emergency inpatient and outpatient services, and relocate the physiotherapy service.
 
In the area of employment, the Regional Government has decided to amend the INTEGRA and "Estagiar" programmes.
 
As for the regard to integration of workers under the INTEGRA programme, the Government will increase the subsidies awarded to the entities that hire the unemployed attending occupational programmes.
With this amendment, the support allocated to entrepreneurs for the hiring of unemployed that meets the criteria through an employment contract with the duration of least one year will be now increased by 10%.
 
The support provided by the programme to the unemployed registered at Regional Employment Centres is set at 350 Euros or 450 per month for those who are enrolled for less than a year and those who are enrolled for over one year, respectively.
 
Under this programme, the hiring of young people up to the age of 29 years has a differential treatment with the allocation of a higher amount in accordance with their academic qualification, which may reach 550 Euros per month.
 
The programme also encourages the hiring of unemployed over 50 years by stipulating an increase of 20% on the support to be allocated.
 
In the case of "Estagiar" programmes, the Government will proceed with the amendment to rules in order to make them accessible to a wider range of companies and young people.
 
Thus, the "Estagiar L" and "Estagiar T" programmes are open to companies that, despite not being required to submit the Single Report, prove to have started their activity in the three months prior the application period.
 
In turn, the "Estagiar U" programme is now open to young people attending postgraduate courses in addition to those enrolled in courses that confer a bachelor degree or a master's degree; the latter group was already comprised by the rules in force.
 
Created in 1998, the "Estagiar" programmes have been a valuable tool in the ingratiation of young people into the labour market. For the past 18 years, it has been a quality alternative the Regional Government provides to young graduates, either in higher education or in vocational training.
 
So far, a total of 13,406 young Azoreans have taken part in these programmes. The application period for "Estagiar L" and "Estagiar T" traineeships starting in October will open this month.