Towns want healthier option

Medical centre needs to extend opening hours, say town halls

TOWN halls are calling for longer opening hours at a health centre to meet demand for frontline primary care in Benitachell.

The town’s surgery is now open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays - an increase of one day following complaints but it was said that this was not enough.

The overspill when the health centre is shut in Benitachell is causing overcrowding at the neighbouring facility in Teulada, it was claimed.

Mayor of Benitachell Miguel Ángel García and his Teulada Moraira counterpart, Rosa Vila, backed by councillors, have called on Marina Salud the private company that manages primary care across the Marina Alta for the regional government - to take urgent action to improve ‘face-to-face’ healthcare in the town.

An appeal directly to the regional health service resulted in the health centre opening three days a week.

However, the town halls maintain this is not enough at the height of the summer season, when the population of Benitachell soars and with Covid19 infections rising along the Costa Blanca.

Unlike neighbouring towns such as Jávea, Dénia and Moraira, they say there is not an additional temporary clinic to boost access to healthcare.

The mayors said the town's health facility had gone from five days a week to just two days and, following complaints, an increase to three days - they also say paediatric services have been withdrawn.

Benitachell maintains: “Thanks to the insistence of this council and other local authorities, some improvements have been made but they are still insufficient.

“We are not satisfied with three days of consultations, not with the paralysis of the paediatric service as a result of the health crisis.

“We will continue to fight so that the residents of Benitachell have the medical assistance they deserve.”

Marina Salud has argued that because of the coronavirus emergency it has had to reorganise health services across the area.