Valencia lets hospital down
Valencia cuts funds for much-needed Villajoyosa hospital enlargement to only €1.1million this year - thus delaying its completion date
Funds for extention barely allow for blueprints this year
MARINA Baixa patients have been let down by regional government once again as funds for the much-needed enlargement and improvement of the district hospital in Villajoyosa will fall very short of its completion this year.
Mayors met with regional health councillor Ana Barceló in Villajoyosa on Tuesday, along with the hospital management, to give them an update on the enlargement scheme and the new access from the N-332 bypass.
The project is still very much that, because it has not even been drawn yet. Work was scheduled to begin during the first six months of this year, but Marina Baixa representatives were disappointed to hear that only €1.1million of the over €10m promised three years ago will be invested in the scheme in 2019.
This means that the scheduled increase of 36% of its capacity, the opening of a new A&E unit, more operating theatres and an ophthalmology unit will not happen until at least 2021.
The extension of the district hospital was one of regional president Ximo Puig's great promises for this legislature, which ends in May without any advances.
The first promise was made back in May 2017, when the then regional health councillor Carmen Montón announced an investment of €10.2million for the work to be complete before then end of the legislature (May this year). The amount was actually mentioned in the regional budget and was to be spent over three years to carry out the enlargement.
Two years down the line, the project is not even drawn. Only minor improvements have been carried out in health centres in the district and 'patching-up' work at the hospital itself - ceiling collapsed in several areas and had to be replaced and operating theatres had to be closed as air-conditioning units broke down.
New access
At least the project to build a new access from the N-332 Villajoyosa bypass has received significant funding from central government.
The Ministry of Public Works will put a contract out to tender before March to design the new junction.
Once completed, the junction will allow direct access from the N-332 and avoid the detour of several kilometres that ambulances and patients have to make back to Cala Villajoyosa and Finestrat junction, on the main coastline road.
Meanwhile, the project to build a new car park for 800 vehicles is ready to begin almost immediately, especially after recent incidents caused by the lack of illumination in dark country lanes where staff and patients must park due to lack of parking spaces in the existing facilities.