The Isabel Zendal Nurse Emergency Hospital has gone from being the “flagship” of the Community of Madrid in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic to becoming “a ghost”, “underused”, after an investment of more than 150 million euros from the regional coffers.
According to the CSIT Unión Profesional union, there are currently 68 patients admitted to the center, which was inaugurated on December 1, 2020, and there is “very little” vaccination in these facilities, which have functioned as an immunization space against the coronavirus since the February 23, 2021.
They are only vaccinated on Fridays and by appointment, from 08:30 to 21:30, while the rest of the week the vaccination service remains closed. On Friday, July 14, there were approximately 50 summoned.
In addition, on July 4, the transfer of the Summa 112 Emergency Coordination Center to Zendal was formalized, although after the vacation period the relocation of 45 workers who are now in Pozuelo de Alarcón will be completed.
The general secretary of the Amyts medical union, Ángela Hernández, recalls that in 2022 the Functional Rehabilitation Unit was launched, with a capacity of 72 beds and 170 professionals, for medium-stay patients, “with the difficulties of having nursing controls up to 18 patients and shared bathrooms”.
The Functional Rehabilitation Unit cares for three types of patients: people who need a medium-stay unit (45 days), people who need post-hospitalization care (short admissions) and people who want to be at home, but require care that is given during the day (day hospital).
“We have been saying for a long time that this center is underused and that the regional government does not have a proposal for that space, because nothing was reflected in the last failed budgets of the Community of Madrid”, indicates the deputy of Más Madrid in the Assembly, Javier Padilla.
The Zendal was supposed to house the consultations and operating rooms from the works of the La Paz Hospital and the José Marvá specialty center, but “they have changed the project and right now neither the professionals nor the management team know when they are going to start the works”, points out the parliamentarian.
The socialist deputy in the regional Parliament Carlos Moreno considers that Zendal is the example of a government that opted for “a measure that is more effective from a political point of view than effective from a health point of view” and regrets that “many million euros to cover the costs and extra costs of this infrastructure that stopped going to health centers”.
Moreno recalls that the regional government promoted a reform of the regulations to stop requiring natural light in hospital rooms with the aim of making this center comply with the law, it does not have its own staff and has fewer and fewer patients, while ” The PP is desperately looking for a use that justifies the story that this investment is good for something”.
The Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, stresses that “from day one” her team is working to “give content” to Zendal, a hospital that “has many possibilities”, and ensures that when the project progresses, it will tell what He is going to dedicate it, predictably after the summer, but in the meantime he does not want to make a “spoiler”.
In her inauguration speech, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced that the Center for Innovation in Digital Health will be installed at the Hospital Enfermera Isabel Zendal, which will coordinate the work and research of health technology, pharmaceutical , research foundations and ‘startups’ with the aim of advancing in personalized and precision medicine, in techniques for early detection of diseases and in drug therapies.
“Once the investment is made, you have to make it profitable”, in the opinion of Amyts’ general secretary, who believes that the logical thing would be that in the future Zendal would end up being the hospital for the Valdebebas area, which has a population growth extraordinary.
“The last thing that was announced in the investiture speech was that they wanted to do something related to digitization, but until we see it, we are not going to believe it because it is a site that does not have directly assigned personnel, nor is it an entity of expense, that is, they do not manage their own money, but their money is managed through the Ministry of Health or through the La Paz Hospital, and they have not done any of the things they have said they were going to do with it. been a bluff,” Padilla points out.
Más Madrid proposed in the campaign for the regional and municipal elections on May 28 a green reindustrialization plan to promote seven development poles in the region.
One of them was the Farmanorte industrial pole with the aim of aligning the needs for knowledge generation in the biomedical field with the needs of the population, through public policies for investment, innovation and collaboration between all the agents involved in the sector, taking advantage of existing infrastructures, such as the Hospital Enfermera Isabel Zendal.
“Once it is built, you have to use it, but it is very difficult to give it new uses due to the height of the ceilings and the absence of rooms with windows and natural light, without minimum quality requirements,” says the PSOE deputy.
Moreno estimates that Zendal could become a medium-stay hospital for the chronically ill, it could be designed as a hospital in the northern zone and it could also strengthen prevention and health promotion policies.