Whilst Ribera Salud has extended its offer to the Ministry of Health to take in patients from elsewhere, La Plataforma Sanidad Excelente continues to denounce the fact that, in order to relieve pressure on Covid beds, patients from the Vega Baja Hospital in Orihuela are still being moved to the Regional Hospital of the Marina Baixa in La Vila Joiosa, more than a hundred kilometres away, when they could more easily have been transferred the 15 kilometres to Torrevieja.
In recent days they report that Health has moved patients to both the La Vila hospital and also the Sant Joan Hospital in Alicante to reduce the pressure on the Oriolana ICU. La Vila received three patients and the Sant Joan hospital two, although the situation at the Oriolano hospital has improved slightly since the transfers were made.
The association, which defends the continuity of the private management of Ribera Salud at the head of the Torrevieja Health Authority, continues to criticise the Ministry of Health for moving patients such distances when a much better alternative is available in Torrevieja.
Meanwhile recent figures show that the care pressure for patients with coronavirus in Torrevieja has been growing gradually for two weeks at the University Hospital. At the moment there are 7 patients in the ICU, out of a total of 18 available beds, and 45 on the ward. In mid-October the centre only registered five patients with moderate symptoms and none in the ICU.
The driving force of La Plataforma Sanidad Excelente is Mamen Mateo, a former councillor for health in Torrevieja. She says that despite being offered the opportunity to transfer patients from the Vega Baja Hospital, the Minister for Health in Valencia, Ana Barcelo, has turned the opportunity down, preferring to keep them within the state managed hospital system.
Mateo called the decision “A regrettable example of health sectarianism.”
