- Orihuela Costa SAMU continues to function illegally without a doctor
While the brand new Orihuela Costa Emergency Centre, a building of 4,700 square metres, continues to only partially operate as it waits for services to be added, facilities in the SAMU base a little over a kilometre away on the N-332 Cabo Roig roundabout, are in a deplorable condition.
Staff denounce the fact that they have been without air conditioning for three weeks: “It is inhumane,” they say.
In this heat wave, they are operating in temperatures of more than 30 degrees. Despite the numerous complaints that have been sent to the Ministry of Health, they still await a response, so during the 12 hours of service they provide on a daily basis they bring in fans from home.
Staff also confirmed that “this year they have rarely had the services of a doctor” a situation that violates the law, and despite the fact that the regulations require that this type of medical transport has a doctor with it at all times.
Recently the Nursing Union, Satse, warned that the Ministry of Health is failing to comply with health regulations every time it sends out a SAMU ambulance without a doctor. Satse recalls that, according to the health regulations published by the Ministry itself, SAMU ambulances must have a doctor, nurse and a paramedic, they must be labelled as such and the staff must wear badges that identify them.
Just last Saturday the family of a 56-year-old man who died of a heart attack in Alicante, after being treated by a SAMU without a doctor, has denounced the case to the courts.
Currently the number of SAMU ambulances that have to attend daily calls without a doctor continues to increase to the point when there are days, according to workers and unions, where between 30% and 40% of the ambulances of the province do not have a doctor on board .
Neighborhood organisations on the coast have been calling for a better service for some time and for SAMU care to be increased from 12 to 24 hours, especially during the summer, when the population triples, as does the additional pressure that these arrivals put on the medical services.
The Emergency Centre, which at the moment houses the Local Police, Immigration and Civil Guard, was also provided to locate the SAMU in the summer season, as well as Firefighters, Civil Protection and forestry brigades, from where the authorities could then coordinate actions in the southern part of Alicante.
However, the first floor of the centre planned to accommodate this service “remains unfinished, an empty shell that requires a further 600,000 euros to be added to the 2.2 million euros that has already been spent.”
The former Councillor for Health, José Galiano, explained that before leaving the government he had made arrangements with the Ministry to change the SAMU service to 24 hours and to transfer it to the Emergency Centre. He said that a project was presented according to the requirements demanded by the Valencian Ministry of Health, headed by Miguel Mínguez, with the Council proposing an area of about 90 square metres with a pharmacy, four rooms and a kitchen, which had obtained the approval of the Ministry.
