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María Albarral
Marbella
Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 16:39
The Malaga Medical Union (SMM), at a press briefing on Tuesday, blasted the waiting list situation of more than a year at the Costa del Sol Hospital for an operation. "The waiting lists are scandalous in a hospital that was considered a model for the entire Andalusian public system. The only way to describe the situation is as a deep crisis and to support this statement you only have to look at the official data published on the centre's own website updated to 29 December 2023," said José Luis Prada, delegate of the Andalusian medical union at the Marbella hospital.
According to the figures, a total of 5,577 patients are on the surgical waiting list, of whom 1,356 have been waiting for more than a year. Likewise, the average waiting time is 134 days, rising to more than 6 months in the case of the ENT and dermatology departments.
Similarly, some 36,873 patients are waiting for an appointment for a first medical consultation, of whom 23,033 have been waiting for more than two months, with an average delay of 124 days (more than four months).
In the same vein, 32,918 users are waiting for a diagnostic test with an average delay of more than six months, with 16,888 patients waiting for a simple ultrasound scan, with an average delay of 296 days (almost ten months).
Out of a census of 450,000 people in the local area, approximately 25 per cent have private medical insurance and 337,500 depend exclusively on the national health system, of which 75,368, or 22.3 per cent, are waiting for surgery, a test or a consultation. In addition to the waiting list, there is a chronic overload in the emergency department.
"These problems are compounded by the underfunding and neglect [caused by the state health service] as well as the endemic lack of health professionals and the absence of a correct forecast of the needs," said Prada.
The Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella, Hospital de Alta Resolución (HAR) in Benalmádena, Hospital de Alta Resolución (HAR) in Estepona and the Centro de Alta Resolución de Especialidades (CARE) in Mijas belong to the same management unit.
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