Almost three years after its premiere, the Community of Madrid still has no long-term project for the Enfermera Isabel Zendal Emergency Hospital and continues to assign it new temporary tasks. The last known assignment for this complex of multipurpose pavilions in the northwest of the capital is that of a Day Care Center for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) while a medical residence for these patients is being built in the old Puerta de Hierro Hospital. The announcement was made by the Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, who in a meeting with journalists this Monday added that she expects the Zendal ALS unit to be operational in February, after its inauguration by the president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Zendal opened its doors in December 2020 as an “emergency hospital” to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, but since the pressure on care due to this crisis decreased, the Community of Madrid has given it various health uses (rehabilitation after stroke or surgeries, vaccination, regional public health laboratory, 112 switchboard) and also non-health uses (care for Ukrainian refugees).
The counselor responded to journalists that Zendal was a pioneering project that facilitated the response to the coronavirus emergency and added that now her team has the task of finding uses for the facility. “One of the lines of work of all the general directorates is to give it the content it requires and we will inform you precisely and when appropriate of the final project, with solid data. It is information that we will send to you,” said Matute at the meeting, at the central headquarters of the Ministry of Health.
The new ALS Care Center will be located in Pavilion 1 (of the three that Zendal has) and will house about 60 patients, who will not spend the night in the facility. The bulk of its staff will be new hires, according to a Ministry spokesperson. It will be made up of physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and psychologists. Matute has said that the Ministry is going to invest 1.5 million euros to make a more friendly space. To do this, they will reduce the high ceilings of the pavilion with structures made of bamboo, hemp and natural plants.
This solution, Matute explained, will be operational until the work in the old Puerta de Hierro Hospital is completed, where the machines will begin working shortly. This hospital or residence (he used both terms during the meeting) for ALS patients will open, he said, before the end of the legislature, in 2027. It will be, he added, the “first center in the world” for comprehensive care for ALS patients. THE A. The Community will invest 73 million euros in this infrastructure, which will have 190 beds. The old building of the Puerta de Hierro Hospital, in the northwest of the capital, was abandoned in 2008 when the transfer of its activity to a new facility in the municipality of Majadahonda was completed.
Asked about the new use of Zendal, several unions criticized the “improvisation” of the Ministry of Health. “They don’t have a project,” says CCOO Madrid Hospitals spokesperson, Ignacio Gómez. “When there is something new that they don’t know where to put, they put it in the Zendal.” CCOO estimates that the Community has already invested around 200 million euros in this complex, which after the pandemic was left with hardly any healthcare activity.
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Ángela Hernández, general secretary of the Madrid medical union Amyts, understands that any new resource is positive, but questions the lack of planning. “If fate gives you a lemon, it’s good that we make lemonade, but they already have so many things that it seems like I want to and I can’t.”
One of the problems of Zendal is its design, with heights of 12 meters and large open spaces, which makes it complicated to convert it into a regular hospital with rooms for patients with outside light. Some reputable experts have suggested that it is best to throw it away and do it again, but that would mean losing a work whose cost has been estimated at more than 140 million euros.
Matute, who took office for the first time this summer, said in his meeting with the press that he comes to the position with a spirit of dialogue. He has already had meetings with different actors in Madrid’s healthcare sector, which is experiencing a period of relative calm after the strikes and protests at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. The new counselor, who replaces Enrique Ruiz Escudero, has the advantage that the PP now has an absolute majority and will be able to approve a budget increase for health, but she must respond to numerous infrastructure promises and waiting lists that do not allow to grow.
Matute made other announcements in his meeting with the press.
He said that this year they will launch a page called MadridTeCuida, which seeks to fight against “misinformation from Dr. Google and health influencers.” It will be an informative website and not a telemedicine one, he specified. He also reported that the Community will increase efforts to care for mental health, incorporating 181 specialists before the end of this year with an investment of 43 million euros. In line with this commitment, they are going to double the number of care places for children and young people with mental health problems. To reduce visits to health centers, the Community wants to promote home care. Matute explained that 18 public hospitals already have a monitoring service for patients who return home. To coordinate this assistance, they will launch a Single Control Center in the first half of next year. The Community plans its own lung cancer screening program before the end of the year, the Cassandra Project. The Community hopes that by the end By 2024, the temporary employment of its workforce has been reduced to 8% thanks to the competitions launched to comply with the mandates of the European Union. In addition, the counselor promised that starting in 2024, transfers of professionals within Sermas itself will begin to be called on a biennial basis (a demand from the workers) and from the following year and also on a biennial basis, public job offers will be held.
Contact the author by email fpeinado@elpais.es or fernandopeinado@protonmail.com
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