- The Mayor and the Councillor of Health met last October 14th with the management of the Dénia Health Department in view of the lack of personnel affecting the centre
After years of demands, meetings and formal written requests -first with Marina Salud and now with the Conselleria after the reversion of the health care system-, the doctor’s office of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell will finally have an administrative employee in charge of the Department of Health of Dénia to attend to the public and other formalities.
Until now, the situation so far of Benitatxell was absolutely anomalous, since, despite not being a competence of the Council, the administrative employee in charge of the health centre was part of the personnel of the council and it was the local authority itself that was financially in charge of it. In spite of having demanded on numerous occasions that the previous concessionaire, Marina Salud, assume its responsibility to offer the service that the citizens deserved, its response had always been unfavourable.
Now, after the meeting held last October 14th between the mayor, Miguel Ángel García, and the councillor of Health, Isa Garrido, and the manager of the Department of Health of Dénia, Juan Puig, the health area has made the commitment to incorporate a person in this position in order to free the current administrative staff so that he can return to his duties at the Town Hall.
However, this change will be made progressively and slowly so that the attention to patients will not be affected, so the current administrative will stay a few more months of reinforcement until the new person in charge gets adapted to all his/her functions.
Waiting for a doctor
Another urgent matter discussed at the meeting, although not with the expected results, was the lack of doctors that the centre has been suffering from for several months. For years, the centre has always had two doctors for family practice, but for some time now only one doctor has been taking care of the entire patients’ list, causing waiting lists of weeks, and even months, to see the family doctor.
As the manager, Juan Puig, explained, the lack of doctors who are willing to come to work in La Marina Alta is a real headache for the entire health department. Nevertheless, work continues to attract them and, in fact, El Poble Nou de Benitatxell is high on the department’s list of needs.
‘Since we entered the government, we have worked hard to achieve improvements for our Health Centre, putting pressure when we have considered it necessary and meeting as many times as necessary,’ Garrido emphasised. ‘With Marina Salud we had no luck, but the Conselleria de Salud, in the short time it has been managing the health of La Marina Alta, has listened to us and we are on the right track. We know that it is a reality that they are having serious problems finding doctors, so we are trying to be cautious with this issue and we have offered them all our help for whatever they may need,’ concluded García.
ACTA REUNIÓN POBLE NOU BENITATXELL
