The Angolan President, João Lourenço, presided over the opening ceremony of the health care center, in a ceremony where a Cuban delegation was present, headed by Public Health Minister Dr. José Angel Portal.
Speaking before the National Assembly on the current situation of the nation on October 15, Lourenço announced the inauguration of the hospital and said that the name chosen pays tribute to “the brave Cuban combatants who shed their blood and gave their lives in favor of the struggle for the territorial integrity of our country”.
With 200-bed capacity, Comandante Raul Diaz Argüelles will provide pediatrics, hemodialysis, gynecology and obstetrics, otorhinolaryngology, ophthalmology, surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, intensive care, mammography and medical imaging services.
According to the director of the health office of South Cuanza, Nelson Camilo, the health facility cost 63 million 180 thousand euros and since last Friday the hemodialysis service, which has a capacity to serve 80 patients from the province and also from Luanda and Benguela, has been in operation.
Commander Raul Diaz Argüelles was the first head of the Cuban military mission in Angola who was killed fighting on December 11, 1975 when the armored transporter in which he was traveling crashed with an anti-tank mine.
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