The regional deputy of Aragón-Teruel Existe, Pilar Buj, has demanded this Thursday of the Government of Aragón that it modify the current management model of hospital laundry in the province of Teruel.
"Today we are presenting a proposal that does not appear in the major openings to which this Government has gotten us accustomed, but that a hospital needs every day: clean laundry," she said at a press conference.
"The laundry and the disinfection service are essential for the safety of patients, of healthcare professionals, and for the control of infections," she explained.
Buj has explained that, at this time, Teruel’s healthcare sector manages part of the laundry from the building of the former Hospital Obispo Polanco and that the laundry transport contract, awarded in January 2026 for 32,670 euros, establishes three routes with origin and destination in the current Hospital Obispo Polanco.
"Are we going to open a new hospital and keep the organization of the laundry depending on a building that is in the process of being emptied? Are we going to move laundry from one hospital to another when we could plan our own, modern service, adapted to the needs of the entire sector?".
TERRITORY
Pilar Buj also focused on the territorial dimension of the service. "Rural health centers are left out of that circuit and depend on external contracts. That is to say, we are not providing an integrated response to the whole of the territory either".
In this regard, she has proposed that "the new Hospital Universitario Obispo Polanco have a laundry, hygiene, and linen service managed directly by the Salud, preferably integrated into the new hospital or, if technically not possible, on another public plot of land in the city".
She has stressed that "we are not asking for an improvised facility nor do we defend building without knowing the needs. That is why we propose a technical and economic study that determines the necessary capacity, the equipment, the technology, the human resources, and the logistics. But that study must serve to make decisions and carry out an action, not to keep the proposal in a drawer".
As she has emphasized, from Aragón-Teruel Existe "we want to make it clear that we are proposing a laundry service for the entire healthcare sector of Teruel: the Hospital Universitario Obispo Polanco, the Hospital San José, the San Juan de Dios Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center, and the local health centers and consulting rooms, including those in the rural area".
He has argued that "having one’s own, nearby capacity is a guarantee of continuity of care in the face of a health emergency, a pandemic, incidents on the roads, adverse weather events, or logistical problems because it would be difficult to explain that, after investing in a new hospital of 64,000 square meters, three times larger than the previous one, a service as basic as the supply of clean clothing for the hospital and for the healthcare sector is not adequately planned".
Lastly, she has warned that "we fear that this lack of action with the laundry is to take a road that once again isolates Teruel, either by not acting to outsource the entire service to private companies or by not acting to centralize all the service in Zaragoza and so that once again Teruel is left without an essential service for the healthcare system, such as the laundry," Pilar Buj concluded.