Little more than a year after the reversion to the public system of the Torrevieja hospital, the situation in the hospital centre is still being described as chaotic, as information released by workers at the centre shows that the services continue to decline, despite the busiest period of the year in terms of tourism being over.
Thus, according to these data, the waiting list for surgical intervention has increased by 231 percent, going from the 1,300 patients in 2021 waiting to be operated on, to almost 3,000 this year. In addition, the waiting list to be seen by a specialist has grown by more than 8,000 people, from 6,052 patients in 2021 to 14,000 this year, many of them without an assigned appointment.
Another striking indicator, and one that generates serious problems, is the waiting time in the Emergency Department. This has gone from 40 minutes on average in July 2012 to 200 minutes in July of this year, with many horror stories still being generated by people waiting to be seen, shared often through social media.
The lack of doctors is one of the main problems of Valencian health in general, and of this hospital complex in particular. From the Works Committee they assure that the first week after the reversal, the Ministry of Health sent a letter to the doctors who were working in this hospital to inform them that they had to obtain the title of MIR to be able to practice, resulting in many of them being unable to continue. Shortly after, they tried to recover these professionals due to the lack of doctors. Subsequently, they had to fill the positions with foreign professionals, many of whom do not even speak Spanish, these same sources assure.
“Other departments have been reinforced, such as administration or nursing, but this is as if there were 25 stewardesses on a plane and no pilots, they say. Here what is needed are doctors2”, assure these same sources.
“This summer has been very complicated,” admit the Works Committee, and explain that when the hospital was under the management of Ribera Salud, incentives were offered to doctors to take shifts in the Emergency Room and not to take vacations in July and August, something that does not happen now, so during the vacation months there was a lack of health professionals. In fact, this summer of 2022 there has been a total of 3,934 “escapees” from the emergency room (people who give their data to be treated and leave unattended out of desperation), compared to 1,792 in 2021 or 1,332 in 2019 (last year of “normality”).
One of the causes of this situation is that there are currently between four and five doctors per shift in the Emergency Room, compared to the eight or nine that existed before the reversal.
The complicated situation of the centre is not only evident in the health care figures but is also reflected in the hospital’s management bodies. A few days ago, the centre manager, Pilar Santos, resigned, as well as the economic director.
But they have not been the only resignations. Three months after passing into the hands of the Conselleria, the director of primary care resigned and later the care director, who was followed by the medical director.
The new manager, José Cano, has appeared before workers, but whether he can recover the situation, especially as the lack of doctors in the public sector is not only affecting Torrevieja, remains to be seen.
