The Mayoress of Calpe, Ana Sala, and the Councillor for Health, Itziar Doval, held a meeting yesterday with Eva Suárez, Director General of Primary Care, Enrique Soler, Deputy Director General of Primary Care, Juana Belmar López, Deputy Director General of Infrastructure of the Regional Ministry of Health and César Jiménez Alcañiz, Head of the Healthcare Infrastructure Service, to convey directly the urgent need to build a second health centre in the municipality. To this end, the Town Council has already approved the transfer of a 13,675 m² plot of land for public use.
This meeting is in response to the unanimous agreement adopted by the Plenary Session of Calpe Town Council on 8 October last, in which the Regional Ministry of Health was urged to resume a project that had been committed to since 2008 in the management contract signed with Marina Salud S.A. This contract expressly contemplated the construction of a second integrated health centre in Calpe, an infrastructure that was never built.
Following the end of the concession and the return of healthcare management to the hands of the regional government in 2024, the City Council believes that it is time to settle this historical debt with the citizens. To facilitate its execution, the Calpe City Council has ceded to the Regional Ministry a 13,675 m² plot of land located in the Gargasindi area, next to the future Les Salines Secondary School.
However, at yesterday's meeting, municipal officials were told that it is necessary to formally present the transfer of the land to the Regional Ministry to analyse the suitability of the plot before it is accepted.
This new infrastructure would help alleviate the current saturation of the only existing health centre, designed in 1990 for just 9,000 health cards, and which today serves a population that multiplies by five in high season, reaching peaks of almost 125,000 people.
The Regional Ministry has also pointed out that the fact that the investment in the new health centre does not appear in the general budget of the Regional Government for 2025 does not mean that it cannot be carried out.
The Mayoress and the councillor for health have also requested that until the new health centre is a reality, healthcare provision be reinforced by opening the auxiliary summer clinic all year round. In this regard, the regional authorities have emphasised the difficulty of filling vacancies in the Denia health area. In fact, even with a budget, the auxiliary centre does not open all year round due to a lack of professionals. However, there is a willingness to open the auxiliary centre to improve the service while the second health centre is being built, provided that there are enough professionals.
The municipal government team has positively valued the climate of dialogue maintained during the meeting. ‘This second health centre is not a whim: it is an urgent necessity, planned for since 2008 and which Marina Salud S.A. has failed to fulfil. It is a key project to guarantee decent healthcare for residents and visitors,’ said the Mayoress, Ana Sala.