Head of Junta admits 'Malaga is the province with the fewest beds and healthcare professionals per inhabitant in Andalucía'

Juanma Moreno, the president of the Junta de Andalucía regional government, has confirmed that "Malaga is the province with the fewest beds and healthcare professionals per inhabitant in Andalucía", although he did not specify the figures.

However, according to a report by the Andalusian council of medical associations (CACM) issued in April, Malaga ranked seventh among the Andalusian provinces in terms of the number of doctors in the public health system per thousand inhabitants. Specifically, there were 2.55 doctors per thousand registered residents. The ranking was headed by Granada, with 3.74 doctors per thousand residents in the province.

Moreno said that the Junta is aiming to solve decade-long problems such as the "enormous health deficit in Malaga". For more than three decades, the province has not seen the construction of a major new hospital, "despite the fact that the population has increased by more than half a million inhabitants".

This is the reason for the 607-million-euro tender for the third hospital in Malaga - a building that will have 815 rooms, 40 operating theatres and more than 150 consultations. "There has been a real need to improve healthcare in the province of Malaga and this government is responding to it after years of neglect," he said.

According to Moreno, Andalucía's summer plan to add 36,500 new contracts to the health sector this year adapts well to the increasing number of visitors during the high season.