The Alicante College of Nursing has said that the two people arrested in Benidorm last Monday for allegedly losing an injured man as they were transferring him to Vila Joiosa Hospital, were both emergency health technicians and that neither of them was a nurse.
The National Police arrested the pair for a crime of neglect of duty of relief as they had left the victim alone and unconscious without communicating their whereabouts.
On Saturday night the emergency services were called to treat a 30-year-old British man, who suffered knife injuries during a fight with three others in a Benidorm bar.
The police had arrived earlier and after arresting the three alleged assailants they called an ambulance for the injured tourist.
Later in the evening the police called the hospital to check on the condition of the patient but were told by reception staff that there had been no-one admitted with the characteristics described to A & E. Police then located the ambulance and its two personnel who explained that the injured man became aggressive during the journey and walked off.
In the meantime the National Police had called the Emergency Centre to request support but the ambulance that they sent was the very same ambulance and medics that had responded earlier. They were said to be acting strangely as a result of which both were subjected to a drugs test which returned positive for cocaine and marijuana.
Although the British patient recovered in hospital he said that he had no recollection of the incident.
When asked to comment to the press a spokesman for the local police refused on the grounds that the story was gaining too much media attention.
Just 3 weeks ago, as reported in the Leader Newspaper, a woman was seriously injured when she fell out of a moving ambulance on her way to hospital provided by the same company.
The woman rolled out of the open doors and onto the road before she was helped by a passing motorist who was travelling behind and witnessed the events.
In writing to the manager of the Department of Health of Marina Baixa the Benidorm councillor for Health and deputy mayor, Ana Pellicer, described the incident as “alarming” and “regrettable” urging Health to ensure that such actions “do not happen again”, given that, in her opinion, “they not only harm the credibility of the public health system, but also the image of the municipality.”
