16 Mar, 2020 @ 20:38
1 min read

Private hospitals put under control of Spain’s public health system in heightened coronavirus measures

Hospital Quiron Vizcaya  1

PRIVATE hospitals and other health facilities in Spain have been put under the control of the regional health authorities.

This means that they could be ‘requisitioned’ for the use of victims of coronavirus should the Spanish NHS facilities be overwhelmed.

Minister of Health Salvador Illa confirmed that the move was part of the state of alert declared on Saturday.

Hospital Quiron Vizcaya  1
UNDER CONTROL: Private hospitals could be taken over during coronavirus emergency.

He added that it was one of the most important measures and is designed to avoid the collapse of the public health system.

The powers given to the regional health authorities also allow them to take over any public or private buildings – thought to include hotels – they need to ensure the health system continues to function.

All medical supplies must also be made available to the health authorities.

Manufacturers and suppliers of items such as masks, diagnostic kits, protective gloves and gowns, disinfectant gels and ventilators were given 48 hours to declare their stock to authorities.

The Guardia Civil have already requisitioned 150,000 protective masks from a factory in Alcala la Real (Jaen).

Some 86,000 were taken to Madrid’s Infanta Sofia Hospital last night (March 15) with the rest transported today.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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