Alex Trelinski
A PUBLIC health campaign group has called for more beds at Torrevieja Hospital during a protest outside the facility on Thursday.
‘Platforma por la Sanidad Publica y de Calidad’ says the average bed allocation in the Valencian Community is 2.1 beds per 1,000 residents, but Torrevieja Hospital falls short of that.
It currently has 274 beds with the campaigners claiming it needs an additional 166 beds to reach the regional average.
29 beds have been added since the hospital returned to public management in October 2021.
One in three residents in the Torrevieja health department is 65 years and older, with half of SIP health card holders being non-Spanish.
The Valencian Health Ministry says there are a total of 204,000 card holders in the department.
Platforma spokesperson, Eva de la Fuente, said the hospital had not kept pace with the rising population in the Torrevieja area.
“The population has more than doubled over the last 20 years and rises dramatically during the summer season,” she said.
“The bed shortage puts extra strain across the whole hospital and is especially noticeable in the emergency department,” de La Fuente added.
With local and regional elections at the end of May, the group called on ‘all political parties to allocate more money to expand Torrevieja Hospital and to increase bed numbers’.
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