Calpe vows to solve ambulance problem
Provisional agreement reached at the town hall
A MEETING of Calpe town council on Monday voted unanimously to find a solution to the ongoing problem of insufficient ambulances in the town, even if they have to sign an unregulated contract, as they don't have authority on health matters.
This same week, the ombudsman requested a report on the situation of the precariousness of the service from the regional health department.
However, this point generated a wide debate. The spokesman for Defendamos Calpe, Paco Quiles, said that 'the proposal is not very thought out' and pointed to the criteria of population dispersion as a result of the town model of recent years.
Ximo Perles, from Compromís said, “We do not share the delegation of powers because it is not accompanied by the delegation of financial resources.”
The socialist spokesman, Santos Pastor, wanted to recall the conflict and accused the government of treating the issue with 'alarming frivolity.' Ciudadanos spokesman, Juan Manuel del Pino, said, “In the face of this problem it seems good to address the regional health authority and make them aware of the vulnerable position we are in”.
Finally, the mayor, Ana Sala, said, “We have a current problem and have been left alone. It would help us if you vote in favour of this agreement that we are presenting at the meeting, so that citizens can see that both their governing body and the opposition care about them.”
The decision was made after yet another incident in Calpe last week, when a resident of Calpe fainted in a shop on Avenida Gabriel Miró. The emergency services were called at 16.25. Local police attended and found the man lying on the ground, conscious, but weak. At 17.00 a Red Cross ambulance arrived and diagnosed that the man was suffering from hypoglycaemia. They asked the CICU (Emergency Information and Coordination Centre) if they could transfer the man to the Calpe health centre, but the CICU refused to authorise it, said Sala, who read out the police report.
The CICU indicated that it was necessary to wait for a Basic Life Support (SVB) ambulance to arrive, which is the service assigned by the health department in the town. It arrived at 17.15 and took the patient to the health centre.
Therefore, the time the patient had to wait before being transferred in an ambulance and being seen by a doctor was fifty minutes.
The most serious case was that of an 80-year-old German man, resident in Calpe, who died after waiting for health care for two hours. A neighbour who attended to him called seven times to request an ambulance, but when it arrived, the pensioner had already died.
The only ambulance in Calpe is an SVB (basic life support), and when there is another emergency or it is taking patients to the hospital in Dénia, there is no other medical transport.