The University Hospital of Guadalajara has been involved in a controversy after the new reform in its premises. The need to build new elevators to improve the connection between the Emergency Service and the surgical block led to the inauguration of the extension on September 14.
Now, the Diario Sanitario publishes that SESCAM will have to intervene with “imperious urgency” 207,000 euros for a new, larger elevator and this has created disputes that have already reached politics. Sources familiar with the project, carried out by the company SCHINDLER, S.A., spoke in said publication of a calculation error and acknowledge that this situation was already known at the time of the inauguration along with other failures that would be delaying the start-up of the project. hospital operation.
SESCAM justifies that the construction of the new elevator “is essential” to improve the connection between the ICU and the surgical unit. Without it, it would be very difficult to transfer the rest of the services to their new location and “it would delay all the planned care activity.”
The management of the Integrated Area alleges that it is “absolutely false” that the beds do not fit in the elevators of the extension. In fact, SESCAM justifies the new reform not as an error, but as an improvement over the initial project thanks to various evaluations for patient safety.
The manager of the Castilla-La Mancha Health Service, Antonio Sanz, points out that the current elevators comply with the regulations, but the new protocols recommend larger elevators for those critical patients who require a transfer with equipment attached to the bed or accompaniment of more staff.
The debate has also reached the political spheres. The president of the Popular Party of Guadalajara, Lucas Castillo, has described the reform as a “botch.”
“First there were the Cantabria tunnels through which the trains did not enter. And now, in Guadalajara, after nearly 15 years waiting for the new Hospital and a million-dollar investment, the elevators arrive in which the stretchers do not fit. 207,000 euros to correct this botch”, criticizes from his Twitter account.
Pablo Bellido, the secretary of the PSOE, has responded to these accusations by publishing a photograph showing the bed inside the elevator and affirming that “this is one more lie in their electoral plan. Anything goes to them as long as they get 4 votes.” “The PP returns to its old ways with its lies and hoaxes,” he adds.
On the other hand, the councilor of the independent party AIKE Guadalajara, Jorge Riendas, describes what happened as “nonsense.”
In addition to the new elevators, with the expansion of the Guadalajara Hospital, new services such as Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy Oncology, Radiophysics and Radiological Protection or Pediatric Surgery were also planned.
