Almost three years after its premiere, the Community of Madrid still does not have a long-term project for the Enfermera Isabel Zendal Emergency Hospital and continues to assign it new temporary tasks. The last known commission for this complex of multi-purpose pavilions in the northwest of the capital is that of a day care center for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients, while a medical residence for these patients is being built at the old Puerta de Hierro Hospital. The announcement was made by Health Minister Fátima Matute, who added during a meeting with journalists this Monday that she expects the ALS unit in Zendal to be operational after the inauguration by President Isabel Díaz Ayuso in February.
Zendal opened its doors in December 2020 as an “emergency hospital” to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. However, as the pressure on care has eased due to this crisis, the Community of Madrid has assigned it various health applications (rehabilitation after stroke or operations, vaccination). , regional public health laboratory, telephone switchboard 112) and also non-health purposes (care of Ukrainian refugees).
The adviser responded to journalists by saying that Zendal was a pioneering project that facilitated the response to the coronavirus emergency, adding that her team was now tasked with finding uses for the facility. “One of the tasks of all DGs is to give it the necessary content and we will inform you, if necessary, precisely and with well-founded data about the final project. It is information that we will send to you,” Matute said at the meeting at the Health Ministry’s central headquarters.
The new ALS Care Center will be located in Pavilion 1 (of the three pavilions Zendal has) and will house approximately 60 patients who will not be staying overnight at the facility. According to a spokesman for the ministry, the majority of the staff will be new hires. It will consist of physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and psychologists. Matute said the ministry would invest 1.5 million euros to make the space friendlier. To do this, they will reduce the pavilion’s high ceilings with structures made of bamboo, hemp and natural plants.
This solution, explained Matute, will be operational until the completion of the work in the old Puerta de Hierro Hospital, where the machines will start operating shortly. This hospital or residence (he used both terms during the meeting) for ALS patients will open before the end of the legislative session, in 2027. It will be, he added, the “first center in the world” for comprehensive care for ALS patients. . The Community will invest 73 million euros in this infrastructure with 190 beds. The old Puerta de Hierro hospital building, in the northwest of the capital, was abandoned in 2008 when the transfer of its activities to a new facility in the municipality of Majadahonda was completed.
When asked about the new use of Zendal, several unions criticized the Ministry of Health’s “improvisation”. “They don’t have a project,” says Ignacio Gómez, spokesman for CCOO Madrid Hospitals. “If there is something new that they don’t know where to put it, they put it in the Zendal.” CCOO estimates that the community has already invested around 200 million euros in this complex, where it will be located after the pandemic There were hardly any health activities left.
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Ángela Hernández, general secretary of the Madrid doctors’ union Amyts, is clear that any new resource is positive, but doubts 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 can’t.”
One of Zendal’s problems is its design, with a height of 12 meters and large open spaces, making it difficult to convert it into a normal hospital with rooms for patients with outside light. Some respected experts have suggested that it is best to throw it away and redo it, but that would mean losing a work estimated to cost more than 140 million euros.
Matute, who took office for the first time this summer, said in his meeting with the press that he was taking up the position with a spirit of dialogue. He has already had meetings with various actors in Madrid’s health sector, which is experiencing a period of relative calm after the strikes and protests late last year and early this year. The new advisor who replaces Enrique Ruiz Escudero has the advantage that the PP now has an absolute majority and can agree to a budget increase for health, but she will have to respond to numerous infrastructure promises and waiting lists that do not allow growth.
Matute made further announcements during his meeting with the press.
- He said that this year they will launch a page called MadridTeCuida that will “disseminate misinformation from Dr. “Google and health influencers”. It will be an informational website and not telemedicine, he said.
- He also reported that the Community will increase its efforts in mental health care, involving 181 specialists later this year with an investment of 43 million euros. As part of this commitment, they will double the number of care places for children and young people with mental health problems.
- In order 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 returning home. To coordinate this assistance, they will open a unified control center in the first half of next year.
- Later this year, the community plans to launch its own lung cancer screening program, the Cassandra Project.
- The Community hopes that the temporary employment of its workforce will fall to 8% by the end of 2024 thanks to the competitions launched to fulfill the mandates of the European Union. In addition, the consultant promised that from 2024, the transfer of specialists within Sermas itself will be advertised every two years (a demand of workers) and from the following year, public vacancies will also be advertised every two years.
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