The 100×100 platform for public health and quality of the Torrevieja health department have carried out a protest on Thursday to request more beds for the hospital, so that Torrevieja hospital at least reaches the average ratio of beds per thousand inhabitants of the Valencian Community.
The platform representatives explained that the Torrevieja health department provides services to the municipalities of the coastal and pre-coastal strip of the Vega Baja region, the most populated and stressed regional area due to the incessant increase in habitual and seasonal population in the holiday periods. A total of 9 municipalities and 12 population centres, where Torrevieja and Orihuela-Costa stand out, whose population data year after year break records due to the strength of the construction sector that, in just a decade, has doubled the population of the region. With 367,082 registered inhabitants, the region of Vega Baja is the second most populated in the province of Alicante.
“The population of our health department has certain notable peculiarities due to their incidence in the health system. It is a high habitual population and a seasonal one that, in rest periods, doubles the resident population and stresses public services. In addition, 1 in 3 residents is over 65 years of age and more than half of the census are foreigners. The total number of SIP cards, according to data from the 2021 Ministry of Health Report, is 204,000 and of these, 31% are people over 65 years of age and 50% are foreigners“ they indicate.
“To meet the health needs of this population we have 274 beds, 29 more hospital beds after the reversal, according to data provided by the Management in February 2023. The ratio of number of beds per thousand inhabitants, according to the 2021 census that, surely it is exceeded, it is 1.3 beds per thousand inhabitants. The average number of beds installed in the Valencian Community is 2.10″, they add.
“The shortage of beds in the hospital stresses the entire hospital and becomes more evident in the Emergency Department which, according to a survey promoted by this entity, is the worst valued by users, due, among other things, to the restrictions that the lack of beds on the floor imposes. The greatest occupation of hospital beds is done via the ER, which implies a delay in treatments and interventions in scheduled consultations” they say.
The platform asks the authorities for urban growth to be consistent with respect for green infrastructure and the necessary provision of services to the population. Meanwhile, they call on all political groups to budget for the expansion of the hospital with the consequent increase in hospital beds needed to care for the actual population of the department of Torrevieja.
