The president of ULS de Guimarães, Pedro Cunha, considered the new "Vai e Vem" pilot project "extraordinary," which came into operation on Monday linking Park 2 of the Multiusos de Guimarães to the Hospital da Senhora da Oliveira free of charge. The service operates Monday to Friday, between 7:30 AM and 7:30 PM, with a frequency of every 10 minutes.
Pedro Cunha explained that the initiative comes as a response to the daily constraints experienced by hospital professionals, namely traffic and the difficulty in parking near the hospital unit. The president of ULS argued that providing workers with direct and comfortable transportation is "a smart way to better serve the population," contributing to a more efficient response from the institution.
The director expressed gratitude to the Municipality of Guimarães, the mayor, and Vitrus for the work carried out to get the service up and running, highlighting that the new solution offers professionals an alternative that did not exist until now and could have positive effects on the hospital's operations.
ULS now intends to play an active role in promoting the use of the service, raising awareness among workers about the existence of this alternative. The project will be monitored until the end of the year, assessing the number of passengers transported, demand, use of the parking lot, and impacts on road traffic. The goal is for the pilot phase to demonstrate sufficiently positive results to justify its permanent implementation.
