For the last few months there has been a progressive deterioration in the quality of public healthcare, many people feel, and the reason is that where there were four doctors in the Centro de Salud, now there are only two, who also have to cover the emergency department. So, whereas there were four doctors for 8,000 inhabitants, now there are only two, in a town with a population swollen by summer visitors.

But we’re not just talking about a couple of pensioners beefing on a bench, but about the general feeling of the inhabitants, backed by the political parties and medical staff.

“It’s a real problem because if there is an emergency that requires a patient being transferred to the nearest hospital, then a doctor has to go with the ambulance, leaving the entire town with only one doctor, to cope with the patients of four doctors, plus the summer visitors,” pointed out one of the staff at the Centro Médico, who preferred to remain nameless in case of reprisals.

“When a doctor has to attend to an emergency outside the town, I have to sit around and wait despite having an appointment made weeks before, muttered one woman, adding, “this situation is disgusting.”

Both townsfolk and medical staff conclude that it is precisely summer, when there is most demand, that cuts are made to the staff.

One of the opposition parties, the PA, pointed out through its local leader, Manuel Jiménez, “Ever since the centre opened there have been deficiencies. They provided a stop-gap measure by providing one doctor for the emergency department in the afternoons, but it’s not enough. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the centre is covering the Valle de Lecrín and Padul, not just Durcal.”

The Town Hall admits that there is an ‘organizational’ problem, because there are small towns that have the same amount of doctors, in some cases, even more. Accordingly, the Vice Mayor, Agustín Melguizo is calling on other parties to help find solutions.

(News: Durcal, Valle de Lecrin, Granada, Andalucia)