The Management of the Department of Health of Torrevieja has agreed with the Mayor of Pilar de la Horadada to improve health services in the municipality.

As a result of the agreement, the health department will install a new X-ray machine, the dermatology, traumatology and ENT specialists will return to Pilar de la Horadada for consultations, they will study the possibilities of expansion using the basement of the new Health Centre building, which is now empty, and they will move the emergency door to the old building to decongest the centre. In addition, the agendas have been opened and the quotas of doctors who have recently retired have been assigned.

The Management team of the Department of Health of Torrevieja received the local Councillor for Health, Nieves Moreno, and the Mayor of Pilar de la Horadada, José María Pérez Sánchez, to listen to the complaints that the residents have been making regarding the quality of care in the municipality, as well as studying the proposals that have been formulated by the Council, despite not having powers in health matters. At all times, the Management has explained to the municipal representatives that the main problem they face is the lack of doctors and the impossibility of filling the vacancies, because they say they cannot find doctors who want to come to this area.

At the meeting, the lack of fluid communication from the Management of the Department to the Council was brought to the table, in view of the fact that the Department of Health of the Council has been sending emails and letters to both the Ministry of Health and the Management that have not been answered. At the proposal of Isabel González, new advisor to the Minister of Health in the Torrevieja health department, channels of direct communication and transfer of information have been activated from the Hospital to the Council, of the most relevant events that affect the centres and offices of Pilar de la Horadada to prevent this problem from happening again.

They have also reported that the agendas have been open since last Friday, and that the patients who were without a doctor because theirs had retired, have already been reassigned with two doctors who have joined the permanent staff at Pilar de the Horadada.

On the other hand, the Councillor for Health has raised the urgent need for the specialties of dermatology, traumatology and otolaryngology that were lost due to the pandemic to be consulted again in Pilar de la Horadada. Management has confirmed that these specialties will be resumed shortly. Likewise, Moreno has asked them to replace the current X-ray equipment that is 30 years old, and Management has committed to budgeting a new state-of-the-art X-ray device for the 2023 budgets.

The Management will also attend to the request of the Mayor of Pilar de la Horadada to use the basement of the new building that could house a rehabilitation gym, consultations, or any other sanitary use that may be given to it, since it is currently used for storage. The Council, the municipal technicians and architects have been made available to the Management to design and study these possibilities, a fact that has materialised with the visit of the technicians from the Hospital and the Council to the Health Centre to see in situ the technical possibilities.

Lastly, the Hospital Management has committed to reorganising the distribution of the centres, and is studying locating the emergency room door in the old building, since the emergency room with outpatient consultations and the counter currently congregate at the door.