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Council scraps plans to expand Orihuela Costa medical centre
The overrun Cabo Roig-Campoamor health centre is the only one serving the entire Orihuela Costa
Despite daily queues of expats and locals trailing onto the street of Aguamarina, the Orihuela Costa has decided against expanding the current medical centre located between Cabo Roig and Campoamor, the only such facility to serve the entire population of the Orihuela Costa.
The last local government put plans in place to extend the cramped facilities into the adjacent car park, but the new Councillor for Health, Irene Celdrán, said this week that the project had been scrapped in favour of building a second medical centre in a different area.
She acknowledged that the Aguamarina centre is “too small” and that “we all agree that it is necessary to expand the health system on the coast,” but felt that taking over the empty plot would cause further parking problems along the back of the busy Cabo Roig ‘Strip’.
The problem is that, in theory, the Orihuela Costa doesn’t actually have a large enough registered population to warrant a second health centre, at least as far as the national legislation is concerned. But the reality is that a huge number of foreign expats living in the area aren’t formally registered there, not to mention the floating population with second homes on the coast.
However, the opposition claims to have approached the Ministry of Health on three separate occasions requesting another facility, only to be told the area doesn’t meet the criteria for expansion.
This being the case, councillors have argued that the only way the Orihuela City Council will achieve its goal of securing a second medical centre for the Costa is to convince the Ministry to completely change its criteria, a difficult undertaking that could last years and end “without having that health centre”.
Image: Archive
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