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4TH - 10TH FEBRUARY 2020 - EDITION 824
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Orihuela Costa demands a second health centre C.L.A.R.O. and its coalition partner Cambiemos Orihuela presented a motion in the recent Town Council plenary meeting demanding a second health centre for Orihuela Costa. The motion was surprisingly approved due to a division between the governing parties, the Popular Party voting against the motion and Ciudadanos abstaining from the vote altogether. This was sufficient for a
majority to approve the motion. Helene Akerman, C.L.A.R.O. President, recalled that C.L.A.R.O., which is based on the coast, has been arguing the need for a second health centre in Orihuela Costa for several years. This is a need that is fully supported by associations and local residents living on the coast. The motion highlighted the present situation with long delays in obtaining a
medical appointment, long queues at the Cabo Roig centre, and even examples of patients being sent to neighbouring municipalities like Pilar de la Horadada because the Cabo Roig centre was unable to attend to them. It is intolerable, she said, that an area of the importance of Orihuela Costa with a large fluctuating population reaching very high levels during holiday seasons should only have one medical centre with insufficient resources. The head of C.L.A.R.O’S coalition partner Cambiemos Orihuela, Carlos Bernabe, criticised Ribera Salud, the company which currently manages the health facilities in the area, including Torrevieja Hospital, for ignoring the need for a second health centre in Orihuela Costa until now, the year before its concession to manage the health facilities in the area comes to an end. It has been claimed that the company has used the need for an additional medical centre as a political lever in the hope it would encourage the renewal of its contract. The regional government, responsible for
health matters, has stated clearly that the concession will not be renewed. Both political groups rejected the idea now being proposed by the Popular Party-Ciudadanos governing coalition in Orihuela that an acceptable alternative to a second health centre would be a Consultoria, a kind of doctor’s office. The motion calls for the Valencia regional government to commit to opening a second health centre in Orihuela Costa as soon as possible and for the Orihuela Town Hall to make available the land for such a centre in the northern, most populous part of Orihuela Costa to avoid the need for so many people to have to travel large distances with inadequate public transport to attend the current centre at Cabo Roig.
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