The union Movement Assembly of Health Workers (Mats) together with workers and relatives of patients have denounced the lack of bedding at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in the last two weeks. As well as at the Gregorio Marañón and the San Carlos Clinic.
Relatives of the sick are forced to bring sheets, pillowcases and towels from home. Through the social network of They changed the sheets that day.
“They say there are no sheets,” says the woman as she shows the beds. “They have open wounds and are at risk of infection,” concludes the relative.
In another video broadcast by the same profile and social network, another user reports the same situation. Alfonso, whose mother is admitted to the 12 de Octubre for hip surgery, criticizes the laundry service.
“The cleaning of the bedding has been disastrous. My mother had a urine problem and one day she had wet sheets because there were no sheets to replace. Today I had to bring her sheets from my house so they could put them on “, says Alfonso.
However, the relative also points out that this problem not only affects his mother, but the entire plant. Furthermore, he shows his indignation as a taxpayer because paying taxes does not translate into service. “It’s a shame,” comments the relative.
However, he recognizes the work of health personnel and assures that “they go out of their way for patients.” “They tell us that they do not have supplies, that they do what they can and have even taken bedding to clean in their own home,” details Alfonso.
Luis López, from the Mats union, explained that this is the consequence of the privatization of the laundry in these public hospitals. From last Monday to this Thursday, on October 12, more than 13,000 sets of sheets have been received since last Monday.
The Ministry of Health has indicated that “the situation is due to a specific problem that is in the process of being solved, since procedures have been initiated for new acquisitions of this material, which will be collected by the hospital.”
For its part, the Department of Health is articulating two courses of action to alleviate these problems. Firstly, the creation of a large centralized contract to avoid this type of incident. Secondly, it has allocated 2.1 million euros to the main hospitals of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) that may have problems of this type to guarantee correct supply.
