ARCHIVED - Alicante towns forced to hire own ambulances due to shortage
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
12 months of basic ambulance cover in Pilar de Horadada in the Vega Baja, Alicante province, costs the municipality 570,000 euros a year
Several municipalities in Alicante province are being forced to hire their own ambulance service to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euros due to a shortage of health service ambulances.
Delays in the arrival of an ambulance can cost lives, and the lack of emergency vehicles means that municipalities are having to find their own solution by contracting their own service.
Calpe and Pilar de la Horadada are just two of the towns where the local council is having to spend extra taxpayers money to transport patients to hospitals dozens of kilometres away, with the latter having just signed a contract for the next 12 months worth 570,000 euros.
Both Town Halls have asked the regional Health Department on several occasions to increase the number of ambulances, but their requests have been declined.
And for the likes of Calpe, whose closest hospital is in Denia some 34 km away, this is a cause for concern, which is why vehicles are being hired at a cost of 250,000 a year.
But the department responded that "it is not appropriate, considering that there are already ambulances to cover the municipality's needs".
Sala immediately hit back, arguing: "This is an injustice. They cannot leave citizens without this service, someone could die because an ambulance does not arrive in time".
The issue is exacerbated by the fact that as a tourist town, in addition to the 23,500 registered residents, there is a "floating population" of 40,000, which reaches more than 100,000 in summer, and the closest SAMU ambulance is in Benissa, 12km away, and the TNA (assisted transport) is based in Dénia, 34km away.
Other municipalities are in the same situation. Pinoso Town Council pays 150,000 euros each year to rent a Basic Life Support ambulance and contracts four emergency health technicians. In this way it can provide vital emergency service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Attempts to get compensation for providing the service from the Ministry of Health have apparently been "ignored" because they do not "meet the criteria established by the Emergency regulations".
"However, we consider it an essential, basic and fundamental service for our residents and we have no plans to stop providing it," said Pinoso councillor, María José Moya, highlighting the importance of the service in recent years following a number of serious road accidents when medical teams were able to stabilise victims until a SAMU ambulance or helicopter arrived to take them to Elda Hospital 40 minutes away.
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