Mega-project for hospital due to start

Improvement project will last more than two years

THE €5.6 MILLION extension of the A&E and paediatrics departments – and the ‘short-stay’ wards – at Alicante general hospital is about to get underway.

A spokesman for the regional health department noted that the work project was signed off on Monday, ‘giving the green light for first phase to get underway in the coming days’. The whole scheme is due to take more than two years to complete.

The spokesman noted that no modernisation work has been carried out at the A&E department since 1991 – and that was only a partial reform.

He explained that the size of the A&E and paediatrics departments will be more than doubled with the construction of a new three-storey building which will be an annex to the current centre.

The existing facilities will be completely refurbished.

Hospital director Miguel Ángel García said: “Our goal is to improve the service we offer for patients as well as the conditions that healthcare staff are working in.”

He noted that the project will be carried out in phases in order to reduce disruption at the hospital.

Sr García stated that hospital services will not be affected.

During the first phase of the work a new access point to the A&E department will be built.

Head of A&E Pere Llorens noted that they attend to an average of 500 cases a day.

He said the increase in space will give patients more privacy and allow them to improve their service for the elderly.