This Friday, October 15. As of Saturday the 16th, health care in these centers will be in the hands directly of the Ministry of Health after 15 years.
One year after the announcement, the only thing completely clear is that in this time the relations between the Generalitat Valenciana and the largest autonomous operator of sanitary concessions have deteriorated profoundly. And everything points to a new and prolonged legal war between the company and the Valencian Public Health, as already happened with the reversal of the La Ribera health department.
A legal battle that the company will maintain based on the lack of economic reports that reflect what the real cost of the reversion will be. This Thursday, Ribera insisted on an argument that a Supreme Court ruling picked up this summer and that the Generalitat Valenciana’s own Intervention endorsed when evaluating a few weeks ago the project of the Decree that regulates the effects of the extinction of the management contract of public service by concession of the Department of Health of Torrevieja, in terms of personnel. In it he warned that the documents presented “may not have a good fit in the” strict “subordination to compliance with the requirements of the principles of budgetary stability and financial sustainability referred to in article 7.3 of LO 2/2012”.
That report also recommended “incorporating into it a study or detail in which the concepts and budget items of Chapter II are specified that will make it possible to compensate for the increase in spending in Chapter I.” In other words, the cut in current expenses was going to be used to offset the increase in expenses for the payment of payroll to employees, which will also increase the 1,254 workers, with the creation of 615 more jobs.
The current manager of the Torrevieja department dependent on Ribera, José David Zafrilla, stressed this Thursday that the reversion that “will be made effective in breach of the Stability Law, according to the General Intervention of the Generalitat itself, due to the lack of economic reports on the cost that it will entail direct management and that justify the reversal process”.
The numbers
A report from the Audit Office indicated that Torrevieja is 30% more efficient than the rest of the public hospitals in the Valencian Community, which translates into savings of 45 million euros per year. In addition, the document highlights that this economic efficiency is linked to the achievement of health objectives established in the management agreements.
The company also recalled that according to data from the Ministry itself, Torrevieja is the department with the lowest average surgical delay. Torrevieja patients wait a month and a half less than those of other public hospitals, according to official data for the month of September 2021.
Likewise, users of the Torrevieja health department have an average of 30 days to obtain a first consultation with a specialist doctor, well below the average for the Valencian Community. In addition, according to the Health studies themselves, the degree of satisfaction is above the average for health departments.
Zafrilla considered that “the experience of previous reversals, specifically that of the Hospital de La Ribera, has turned out to be a real failure, with the worsening of the service offered to patients, the increase in waiting lists, the deterioration of infrastructures and the bad working environment. In this way, the Generalitat Valenciana breaks the basic rules of collaboration between companies and the Administration, and transfers the idea that it does not matter how things are done; whether it is done well or badly, the result is the same, which puts the quality of the health service provided to citizens at risk”.
He also assured that the strategic plan that had been prepared for the area for the coming years will be delivered to the Administration so that it can be implemented if the Generalitat so decides. Ribera planned to allocate 40 million euros to it.
computer theft
The arrival of this D-day has also led to an escalation in the crossing of statements. If the Ministry of Health ensures that the company has refused by all means to provide information on the services and that the TSJ has so far rejected the measures to stop the reversal, Ribera has gone to the Civil Guard to report the theft of its computer source code from a computer belonging to the commissioner of the Ministry of Health.
This summer, . An operation that has also raised criticism from the Generalitat, which threatened legal measures despite the fact that the Competition authorized the purchase.
After the reversion, Ribera will maintain precisely the department of Denia and that of Elche-Vinalopó. In addition, Sanitas manages the one in Manises. The intention of the Government of the Botànic is not to renew any of these concessions, which the PP launched in its day.
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