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costa calida EDITION
south edition
Your English Newspaper
roundtownnews.com
28 NOV3-9 - 4 Jan DEC 2014 2014
Issue 789
Torrevieja Hospital turns eight by Keith Nicol
One of the dogs adopted this week
19 dogs and counting THROUGHOUT SPAIN Spain, thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned every year. Torrevieja have recently adopted a catch, spay/neuter and release programme for feral cats to try and control their numbers. When it comes to dogs, thanks to a little initiative introduced back in 2011, the number of stray dogs found wandering the streets of the city has also been dramatically reduced. Read the full story on page 17.
THE UNIVERSITY Hospital of Torrevieja celebrated its eighth anniversary since its official opening on November 21st, 2006. Over this period of time the centre has performed 10,500 birth deliveries and two million consultation services since it opened its doors. Construction of the Hospital and management of its facilities and primary care of this department were awarded by the Government to a joint venture of Ribera Salud, and a 50% share in the facility was acquired recently by the American group Centene and Asisa, under the model of private health management of public health. The department covers the coastal area and second line of the Vega Baja, including Torrevieja, Guardamar, Los Montesinos, Pilar de la Horadada, San Miguel de Salinas, Rojales, Orihuela Costa and Benijofar, among other locations. Among the activity data, over 135,000 procedures have been performed under the CMA rating with surgery that did not require payment under the National Health
system accounting for 73.5% of cases. Referring to the consultations, there have been nearly 2 million hospital appointments, in addition to the more than 11 million visits in primary care, specifically family physicians, paediatricians, nurses, midwives and social workers. They have also treated a total of 560,000 emergencies, for which the hospital has managed to maintain an average waiting time of 35 minutes, which in general is shorter than a typical GP appointment. More than 10,500 births have happened at the hospital also. The Hospital is also involved in the project “A Teacher, A Life�, which will run for nine months in Peru, in the province of Atalaya. The project specifically aims to strengthen the capacities of more than 40 teachers from schools in native communities in the Amazon jungle and 20 schools provide teaching materials in Castilian and in its original language. This action will benefit 2,500 children in 20 communities. The Hospital also helped to set up and design the Public Health Management System FLORENCE, for which Microsoft chose Torrevieja to be it’s main base for development.
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