Health workers in Fuengirola and Mijas protest: only one emergency department for 180,000 people

Emergency staff at Las Lagunas health centre in Mijas are tired of the lack of resources and refuse to tolerate the conditions of limited workforce and services. After two years of usuccessfully trying to secure improvements to the resources available to them, they have decided to take to the streets and express their discomfort through a protest.

Las Lagunas is the only primary care emergency centre for the residents of Mijas and Fuengirola - a permanent population of about 180,000 people, plus those who come and go, especially during the summer months.

César is one of the emergency workers and he served as a spokesperson for his co-workers during the protest. He said that they are expecting that patients will have to wait roughly one hour to be primarily assessed and then another four or five hours to receive proper doctor's care and attention in the coming months.

Faced with this situation, he called for a bigger supply of "basic and necessary resources" and urged management to initiate a clear "dialogue" in order to "improve a service that is increasingly deteriorating". "We need them to listen to us and draw up a roadmap to change things. We just want to improve the service and for everything to work better," he said.

Staff numbers at the Las Lagunas emergency department have not changed for years, despite the population growth. Protesters were joined by representatives from the union and the left-wing PSOE party. As general secretaries for Mijas and Fuengirola of the latter, Josele González and Carmen Segura also showed their support by attending.

"Professionals, users and political leaders have been denouncing an unsustainable situation that is starting to hit rock bottom. The president of the Junta de Andalucía says we have more resources than ever and yet this is the state of the health system here," said González.

He also took the opportunity to remind the public of the promise that the mayors of Mijas and Fuengirola gave in 2018: to build a hospital "for four towns". However, this project has been replaced by the construction of a new health centre.

The health delegation of Andalucía's regional government said that there are five health centres and a 24-hour emergency service (SUAP) in Las Lagunas, shared between Fuengirola and Mijas.

According to the delegation, "the distribution of ambulances and SUAP centres is always based on the reference population and the travel times to the nearest emergency points. In fact, the Andalusian emergency and urgent care plan is under constant review and evaluation and can be modified whenever deemed necessary."

The Fuengirola-Mijas area acquired a new health centre this past February: Los Pacos. In addition, the regional government has guaranteed the extension of Los Boliches health centre, which is pending completion. Two other projects are under way: the construction of a new health centre in Fuengirola and another one in Mijas, which would house primary and hospital care.