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The total number of inhabitants of Mijas and Fuengirola is, according to the latest census, 177,289 people in both municipalities. However, according to the latest studies, during the summer months this population triples, reaching a reality that exceeds 500,000 people. This half a million inhabitants (temporary or permanent) will hardly have a single health centre open 24 hours a day.
This area of the Costa del Sol, which does not have a referral hospital despite the promises of various Andalusian executives, usually had in the summer months the accident and emergency centres in La Cala de Mijas and Las Lagunas to cope with this demand, although medical professionals had been warning for years that the situation was unsustainable.
Far from solving the problem ahead of what is expected to be a record summer in terms of visitor numbers in the province, the regional ministry of health has announced that the centre in La Cala de Mijas will close its doors at 3pm every day from the 15 July until 15 September, leaving the centre in Las Lagunas as the only alternative in the event of an emergency out of hours. The only other option for these potential patients is to go to the emergency services of the Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella or the Hospital Clínico in Malaga.
The La Cala health centre has not always had 24-hour emergency services. It was not until 2018 when the then PSOE regional government of Susana Díaz activated both this service and the ambulance service after years of demands from the opposition parties. The delegate of the Malaga medical union on the Costa del Sol, Antonio de la Cruz, said that there is already an enormous "work overload" in this district. "We must remember that it is an eminently touristy area. There is already a shortage of staff, but now it will be much worse, because there are no plans for reinforcements or expansion", the doctor explained.
In his opinion, it is now that there should be more people working in the district, but there are fewer staff to cope with the increased demand. "Last year there were days when there weren't even enough doctors to go in the ambulances," De la Cruz stressed. "So our forecasts for 2024 are more pessimistic, because more tourists are coming and we will have fewer resources," he pointed out, recalling that the month of July began with colleagues on holiday and no one had yet been hired.
Situation on the Costa del Sol
A few days ago, the delegation of health in Malaga made public the organisation of the health district. The centres of San Miguel and Arroyo de la Miel in the area of Torremolinos-Benalmádena, Las Lagunas in Fuengirola-Mijas, Las Albarizas, Leganitos and San Pedro Alcántara in Marbella, and Estepona Oeste in Estepona will remain open, "providing normal care between 8am and 8pm". They also announced that the primary care emergency services (SUAP) in San Miguel, Arroyo de la Miel (from 8am to 8pm), Las Lagunas, Las Albarizas, San Pedro Alcántara and Estepona Oeste would remain open 24 hours a day. This means that the centres of La Carihuela, Torrequebrada, Fuengirola Oeste, Los Boliches, Sabinillas and La Cala will close at 15:00.
Beyond the case of La Cala, another controversy has arisen with the Sabinillas health centre. According to the health staff, the centre did open during its normal opening hours for a few weeks last summer, while the regional ministry strongly denies this, and assures that the "only" change from one summer to the next is the closure of La Cala, although without explaining the reasons or how they will face the summer under these circumstances.
A few weeks ago, the medical union itself denounced the situation of primary care in the district. In view of the start of the summer season, Antonio de la Cruz explained that his organisation had carried out a study completed on 30 April this year which revealed that 2024 would be a "disaster foretold" due to the increase in the population, since, he claims, it currently has 562,311 users, without taking into account the increase in tourism, which would triple that figure.
According to him, the health district currently has 285 family doctors with medical quotas and 105 doctors assigned to the six primary care emergency services, as well as 66 paediatricians. According to the data of the study and "despite the many promises made by the management", the union claims that there has been an increase of 25,000 new users, "without any of the promised quota reductions having been implemented".
In addition, by the end of 2021, the Malaga medical union was already considering the need to incorporate 35 family doctors and five paediatricians, "a number that has increased by far at the moment" due to the increase in population in the area. According to the data, 91.92 per cent of the family doctors have more than 1,500 users, while 56 per cent of the paediatricians have more than 1,000 children assigned to them.
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