President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inaugurated, this Sunday (15), the 24-hour Emergency Center at Hospital Federal Cardoso Fontes, in Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro. The delivery is part of the unit’s restructuring process, which received R$100 million in investments from the federal government for modernization.
The Unified Health System (SUS) hospital will also have R$610 million annually to fund medium and high complexity services.
With the partnership signed in December 2024 with the City of Rio de Janeiro, the administration of the hospital was municipalized and, since then, according to the Ministry of Health, the unit has increased its capacity for care and procedures.
According to Lula, the hospital has always been used politically, a reality that management decentralization also aims to change.
“Rio de Janeiro’s federal hospitals have always been used as a bargaining chip in electoral campaigns. And then a deputy was placed to take care of one thing, another deputy to take care of another, even to take care of the parking lot you had people who charged the employees”, he said.
The other five federal hospitals in Rio de Janeiro are also undergoing restructuring. Just like Cardoso Fontes, the Andaraí Federal Hospital is already under municipal management.
“The Ministry of Health, in partnership with entities such as Ebserh, Grupo Hospitalar Conceição (GHC), Fiocruz and federal universities, invests in the recovery of the federal network in Rio de Janeiro to overcome historical problems, such as closed emergencies, blocked beds and shortage of professionals”, highlighted the government.
From 2024 to 2025, more than R$1.4 billion were invested with the aim of expanding access to medium and high complexity services, reducing queues, reopening beds and modernizing the infrastructure, logistics and management models of the units.
