The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has once again rejected the existence of a collapse in the healthcare system of Ceuta, emphasizing that "2.5 patients are being admitted per day more than last year" at this same time, a situation that, she reiterated, "is not a picture of collapse."
"Do you know where there are data on image and collapse? In the Hospital de la Paz in Madrid," she pointed out, stressing that in that center "people waiting in the hallways, patients who are not being attended to, patients who cannot be admitted." "That has not happened in the Hospital of Ceuta," she specified this Thursday during her second visit to the autonomous city.
In this line, she emphasized that "there is not a single piece of data that supports the healthcare collapse," although she has admitted the existence of "tension" in care. She clarified that "obviously, not all Services have suffered the same" pressure and that, out of the 34 services in the hospital, "there are four that have suffered greater tension," specifically "Emergency, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Preventive." She then highlighted that "there has not been a single suspension of a single operating room, nor a suspension of any care, nor a suspension of consultations."
In her assessment of the epidemiological situation, García detailed that "we have had 11 confirmed cases of chickenpox, all of which have obviously been made available for healthcare and are under treatment; eight confirmed cases of tuberculosis, three new added to the five we already knew - two of them are hospitalized and one is a suspect -."
Hospital occupancy and migrant patients
The head of Health has specified that "we continue to have the hospital with an occupancy of 53 percent" and "more or less the same figures for assistance both in emergencies and in the primary care health circuits," noting that there are currently 10 migrant patients hospitalized in the Ceuta hospital. At the same time, the Emergency Service has been reinforced with the addition of three more professionals.
Regarding the profile of the patients, she stated that "the data I have given is not from a population that comes with diseases beyond those that, obviously, we already know we have here," and warned that the insistence on speeches against the migrant population "does not help at all to control the situation."
Health cards and vaccination
García has explained that, during his stay in Ceuta, he has held meetings with professionals from the hospital, to whom he has informed about the response capacity of the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA), and also with representatives of the Red Cross to verify on the ground how the vaccination process is progressing.
To conclude, he has indicated that "about 300 health cards have been given to all these children who have the right to have healthcare, among other things, because the guardianship is that of the city of Ceuta." "The rest are protected by a wonderful law of universality that we have in our country, which provides coverage and assistance to everyone, no matter where they come from," the minister has emphasized.