The Camino de Torrox area where the hospital will be built SUR

Vélez-Málaga gives green light to private hospital project

The new health facility will have an accident and emergencies department, outpatients and analytical and radiology services

Friday, 30 September 2022, 10:51

Vélez-Málaga town hall has unanimously approved an agreement signed with the Madrid company HM Hospitales to enable the construction of a new private hospital with 20 rooms in the first phase.

During the council meeting on Monday 26 September, councillors gave the green light to the future health facility, which will be located in the area of Camino de Torrox, close to the Caleta de Vélez link road. Further plans for 400 houses, logistic and commercial areas are also envisaged for the same area.

The aim of the agreement is to develop a private health centre with a capacity for five units, two operating theatres, 20 rooms and six outpatient surgery posts, among other facilities. For the moment, there are no further details on the planned investment or the timeframe for the project.

The agreement aims to launch the public-private partnership "to help to revive the local economy, create jobs and improve the quality of life of residents by offering them more health care, which is necessary given the population and business growth experienced by Vélez-Málaga in recent years," said mayor of Vélez-Málaga, Antonio Moreno Ferrer.

Last January, the Madrid-based HM Hospitales group took over the historic Gálvez Hospital in the Malaga city and the Santa Elena and Del Pilar clinics. Vélez-Málaga town hall must now present the corresponding action plan to the Junta de Andalucía for authorisation. According to the Moreno Ferrer, the investors are "very interested" in the project.

The health facility would have five care units with emergency services, a polyclinic for outpatient consultations, diagnostics with analytics and radiology on a single floor of 1,500 metres in area. On the first floor of the building there will be two multi-purpose operating theatres, an endoscopy room, a recovery area and a day hospital with twenty individual rooms.

Foreign population

The promoters have highlighted that the area of influence would include the eastern coast of Malaga and Granada, with between 20 and 30 per cent foreign population, 80 per cent of whom have private medical insurance and 12 per cent of the national population also have private medical cover.

The mayor also said that plans to create a “luxury campsite” in the same area as the proposed hospital, which would be the fifth of its kind in the municipality, along with those in Almayate, Valle-Niza and the two in Torre del Mar. There are also investors interested in building a logistics and transport area, a project that has been in the pipeline for more than a decade.