diff --git a/python-package/geobr/read_health_facilities.py b/python-package/geobr/read_health_facilities.py
index 4994b0d3..3511715c 100644
--- a/python-package/geobr/read_health_facilities.py
+++ b/python-package/geobr/read_health_facilities.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 from geobr.utils import select_metadata, download_gpkg
 
 
-def read_health_facilities(verbose=False):
+def read_health_facilities(date=202303, verbose=False):
     """ Download geolocated data of health facilities as an sf object.
     
      Data comes from the National Registry of Healthcare facilities (Cadastro Nacional de Estabelecimentos de Saude - CNES),
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ def read_health_facilities(verbose=False):
 
     Parameters
     ----------
+    date : Numeric.  Date of the data in YYYYMM format. Defaults to `202303`,
+        which was the latest data available by the time of this update.
     verbose : bool, optional
         by default False
     
@@ -40,7 +42,7 @@ def read_health_facilities(verbose=False):
     >>> df = read_health_facilities()
     """
 
-    metadata = select_metadata("health_facilities", year=2015, simplified=False)
+    metadata = select_metadata("health_facilities", year=date, simplified=False)
 
     gdf = download_gpkg(metadata)
 
diff --git a/python-package/geobr/utils.py b/python-package/geobr/utils.py
index 95c05a74..600fa445 100644
--- a/python-package/geobr/utils.py
+++ b/python-package/geobr/utils.py
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ def select_year(metadata, year):
         years = ", ".join([str(i) for i in metadata["year"].unique()])
 
         raise Exception(
-            "Error: Invalid Value to argument year. "
+            "Error: Invalid Value to argument 'year/date'. "
             "It must be one of the following: "
             f'{_get_unique_values(metadata, "year")}'
         )
diff --git a/python-package/tests/test_read_health_facilities.py b/python-package/tests/test_read_health_facilities.py
index bfe4791e..ef6dc5c9 100644
--- a/python-package/tests/test_read_health_facilities.py
+++ b/python-package/tests/test_read_health_facilities.py
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ def test_read_health_facilities():
 
     assert isinstance(df, gpd.geodataframe.GeoDataFrame)
 
-    assert len(df) == 360177
+    assert len(df) == 517629
 
     with pytest.raises(Exception):
         read_health_facilities(year=9999999)
+
+    with pytest.raises(Exception):
+        read_health_facilities(year="banana")