- An office with damp and numerous leaks and without power
- The PSOE denounces the poor state of the Orihuela medical centre at Correntías Medias as the Council says it is looking for a new location
Can you imagine sitting in your doctor’s office as the rain drips onto your head and there is a regular cascade of flaking paint and plaster from the ceiling and walls.
For the residents who use the medical centre at Correntías Medias in Orihuela this can be a regular occurrence.
The nurse has to place a bucket next to the stretcher because of the huge roof leak, just one of many in treatment and the waiting rooms where patients wait to be treated. The roof was damaged in the Gota Fria last September and, since then, shortly every time it rains, water leaks into the building.
The PSOE have now denounced the “appalling” state of the centre with the socialist spokeswoman for Orihuela, Carolina Gracia, said that “it is in a third world condition” where the toilets often don’t work and where the staff have to rely on the goodwill of local neighbours.”
The leaks are not the only problem at the medical centre – which serves about 800 people – as for almost a month the electrical power often ‘trips’ when connecting some of the necessary equipment so the lights are always going out.
“We know that the City Council is aware of the problem but, as yet, nothing has been done, heaters are not able to be used along with many other items of necessary equipment,” criticised the councillor.
The medical center also has accessibility problems since the door is too small for the wheelchairs to pass through, so sometimes a patient has had to be treated in the ambulance or the vehicle outside.
Gracia said that the Correntias office “has never been on the ‘to do’ list of the Orihuela government as it does not appear in any budget or in any grant applications that have been made for the local amenities”
However the councillor for Health, José Galiano, said that the City Council has reserved the sum of 180,000 euros to construct a new centre in Correntías but they currently can’t find suitable land in the area on which to build. “We are having a hard time finding land, because most of it is not urban and if we buy a derelict property we are not able to tear it down and build the office there.”
Galiano said he too was “worried” about the state of the current medical centre which is located in a rented building “so we cannot do any work” although council staff will go to fix the leaks and look at the electrical power situation.
