The Torrevieja health department was in uproar during the labour conflicts that followed its reversion to public management. With the arrival into government of the new PP-Vox executive, this has intensified once again, due to the intention of the current Consell not to comply with the agreement that the hospital staff reached with their predecessors.

Now, Ribera Salud’s intention to create another hospital on the coast raising suspicions by the left.

Pilar de la Horadada’s PSOE has spoken of its concern about the news reported in the Spanish press. “First we learned that the Comunidad Valenciana is not going to comply with the agreement with the hospital’s staff, then we are told they were reducing the budget for its expansion and now we hear that Ribera Salud is studying the possibility of opening a private hospital in Orihuela Costa.”

PSOE spokesperson Rubén Ferrándiz said, “there seems to be enough evidence to predict exactly where the road map of the PP and Vox Council is going, and it does not involve privatising the management of the health area once again, but rather disregarding the Torrevieja hospital so that little by little, “The quality of care will gradually deteriorate and create a favourable climate of opinion towards private healthcare.”

Ferrándiz remembers that Vox presented motions in several local town halls asking the regional government, of which it is a part, to return management to private hands.

Now he points out “the Deputy mayor of Orihuela, Manuel Mestre, is suggesting that Orihuela Costa is a potential location for this type of private company, following which Ribera Salud immediately show interest, which seems to suggest that everything that happens around the Torrevieja hospital has not been spontaneous, nor is it coincidental.