The issue of a second health centre for residents of Orihuela Costa was raised at last Thursday’s Plenary meeting by the PSOE who asked for an explanation of the current situation from the governing PP/Vox coalition.
What we saw was that the Council and the Regional Ministry are still not entirely clear, one year later, on how they will solve the problem of saturation at the Aguamarina centro salud, the only medical facility currently serving Orihuela Costa.
When the new Consell and municipal government team assumed power, the project to expand the health centre promoted by their predecessors was put on hold, despite the fact that it was already included in the Generalitat budget and only lacking formalisation by the council with the transfer of the plot adjacent to the current centre, generally used as a car park, although currently, for a summer fair.
On Thursday, however, the local executive gave some more clues as to what is on the negotiating table that they are holding open with the regional administration, the authority that really should undertake the work. And at this time, if Valencia does not take the project forward, there are two options, according to the Councillor for Urban Planning, Matías Ruiz.
The first is that the City Council carries out the construction of a second centre to the north of the Orihuela coast out of its own pocket and the second is that a private company or developer carries out the work in exchange for an urban development benefit, no doubt a coastal plot of land, that compensates them for the financial effort.
Matías Ruiz said that they are in favour of “a second health centre without giving up on the expansion of the current centre”.
In response to questions from the socialists, he acknowledged that there is no document renouncing the Ministry or their investment – the expansion of the Aguamarina health centre – which they inherited from the previous government. What the councillor did say is that they are not going to wait for the Ministry and that they will build a second centre as soon as possible.
What the Councillor for Urban Planning pointed out is that, in terms of water consumption, 150,000 inhabitants live on the Orihuela coast in August and 50,000 in December, and that, in terms of electricity consumption, there are an average of 90,000 residents. This figure, Ruiz emphasised, contrasts sharply with the mere 22,000 health cards registered.
Until now, it should be noted, the Generalitat has refused to build this second health centre because Orihuela Costa does not have the minimum number of registered users, which is largely due to the fact that most of the residents are not documented.
