Cartagena cutbacks to Rosell Hospital this summer

Cartagena, the Rosell Hospital will offer reduced services this coming summer

The full effect of spending cuts is beginning to be felt in Spain’s national health service, and the Santa María de Rosell hospital in Cartagena is bracing itself for a summer of reduced services which will almost certainly cause dissatisfaction among patients and increased workloads among those working there.

The hospital’s intensive care unit and the haemodynamics department will be taken out of service over the summer, and operating theatres will be closed. Only the psychiatry, rehabilitation, allergy, dermatology and external consultation units will remain open as a result of the spending cuts.
The minimal level of service will begin on 13th July, and hospital staff have been keen to reiterate that the cutbacks are only temporary. It is hoped that full service will be resumed after the summer but no date has been set, and this lack of certainty has caused anxiety in the trades unions, who fear that the aims of health authorities might be to close down the units affected permanently.

This at least is the worry expressed by union leader José Benítez, and there has been a meeting between Miguel Ángel Moreno, the health chief for Cartagena, and various union leaders. The outcome was never going to be one of complete agreement, since over 350 employees will be affected, and the reduction in services will also affect the new Santa Lucía hospital just outside the city: the Gynecology and Obstetrics departments are to be merged together on the same floor, reducing staff and materials costs.

Unfortunately for hospital bosses who claim that full service will be restored after the summer, their position has been undermined by Ángeles Palacios, the regional health minister, who stated three weeks ago that the intensive care unit, Haemodynamics and some operating theatres are to be gradually phased out in order to make the health service more financially viable.

Sr Moreno, meanwhile, has said that no more than 30% of absences due to annual holidays will be covered by replacement staff this summer, and health workers fear that this could place those working under unbearable stress and bring about a collapse in the Rosell and the Santa Lucía.  
The full effect of spending cuts is beginning to be felt in Spain’s national health service, and the Santa María de Rosell hospital in Cartagena is bracing itself for a summer of reduced services which will almost certainly cause dissatisfaction among patients and increased workloads among those working there.
The hospital’s intensive care unit and the haemodynamics department will be taken out of service over the summer, and operating theatres will be closed. Only the psychiatry, rehabilitation, allergy, dermatology and external consultation units will remain open as a result of the spending cuts.
The minimal level of service will begin on 13th July, and hospital staff have been keen to reiterate that the cutbacks are only temporary. It is hoped that full service will be resumed after the summer but no date has been set, and this lack of certainty has caused anxiety in the trades unions, who fear that the aims of health authorities might be to close down the units affected permanently.

This at least is the worry expressed by union leader José Benítez, and there has been a meeting between Miguel Ángel Moreno, the health chief for Cartagena, and various union leaders. The outcome was never going to be one of complete agreement, since over 350 employees will be affected, and the reduction in services will also affect the new Santa Lucía hospital just outside the city: the Gynecology and Obstetrics departments are to be merged together on the same floor, reducing staff and materials costs.

Unfortunately for hospital bosses who claim that full service will be restored after the summer, their position has been undermined by Ángeles Palacios, the regional health minister, who stated three weeks ago that the intensive care unit, Haemodynamics and some operating theatres are to be gradually phased out in order to make the health service more financially viable.

Sr Moreno, meanwhile, has said that no more than 30% of absences due to annual holidays will be covered by replacement staff this summer, and health workers fear that this could place those working under unbearable stress and bring about a collapse in the Rosell and the Santa Lucía.