The City Council has granted the building license for the reform and expansion of the Costa del Sol Hospital, which will increase its surface by 38,000 square meters with a new building and an execution budget of 51 million euros. This was announced today by the mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, who has visited the health center together with the delegate of the Andalusian Government in Malaga, Patricia Navarro, and the hospital manager, Luisa Lorenzo. «With our commitment and that of the current Andalusian Government, finally the end of the tunnel is reached after years without a response from the previous regional Executive”, Has assured Muñoz, who recalled that they have been negative for more than a decade to his request that the project be resumed until the arrival of Juanma Moreno to the Board.
“Now we can say that this investment, the most important we have had in the last decade in the city, is already a reality and that if before we had the commitment that the works were going to be done, now we have the certainty”, Has remarked the first mayor, who has highlighted the work of the municipal areas of Urbanism, Heritage and Legal Advice, to“ release this very important license as soon as possible and within the term in which we had committed, without having not a single delay ”, in addition to the“ effort ”of the management and professionals of the hospital complex. Likewise, it has had an impact on the fact that with the project, which will rise to 76 million euros with the budget allocated to equipment, “the needs raised from the beginning will be met, such as the 13 new operating rooms, the mental health unit, the nuclear medicine service, the oncohematological day hospital or the assisted reproduction service”.
For his part, Navarro, has reported that the expansion project was awarded on September 17 for 51.7 million euros (with VAT) to Ferrovial, at the same time that it was awarded for more than 1.4 million euros, the service contract for the management and execution of works and coordination of health and safety during the works. The delegate of the Board has indicated that, once the urban planning license has been obtained, the works may begin shortly and has ensured that “Marbella will become the capital of Andalusian public health”. Likewise, he has highlighted the agility in the procedures and has also thanked the administrative speed of the municipal government team: “The effort that the Andalusian Executive is making in this municipality is reciprocated, because in this city the City Council asks at the same time as it does” .
The delegate has valued this important investment, “which will allow the Costa del Sol Hospital expansion project to become a reality”, achieving the completion and expansion of the new building, which will have 38,000 square meters, as well as the reform and distribution of spaces in the old building of 6,500 square meters. With these works the Costa del Sol will increase by 68 beds with new specialties such as palliative, mental health or multipurpose; the ICU will double its beds with 14 additional new positions; and improvements will be made in the Emergency Department, increasing the consultation, observation and critics rooms. In addition, the future hospital will grow in 90% the number of external consultations with spaces for new specialties, such as speech therapy, endocrinology, radiodiagnosis, hemodialysis, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy, among other services.
The Government delegate has indicated that the last time that the portfolio of services of this hospital center was expanded was in 2009 and that the project was paralyzed for more than a decade. In this time, he has regretted that “the needs have increased, there is a lack of specialties and also the capacity to respond to be able to cover the population, which has grown by more than 20%.” For this reason, it has confirmed that “this work will contribute to solving problems of today and the future, since the Costal del Sol was already at the limit of its capacity when its extension was designed”.
Finally, the manager of the Costa del Sol Hospital, Luisa Lorenzo, has indicated that the work, which It is expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2023, will be able to begin in the coming weeks and has shown its satisfaction for “the confluence of interests of the Junta de Andalucía and the Marbella City Council to launch this project, since to carry out a macro work like this, two things are needed, financing and building license ”.
In this sense, he has referred both to the effectiveness of the Marbella City Council “for the management of a license that has been very complicated”, and to the initiative of the Junta de Andalucía, which “having released 76 million euros through European funds Euros, will allow us to have a reserved budget to achieve our objectives and have the latest generation of high-tech equipment in the new hospital center ”.
Health centers
Regarding primary care, both the mayor and the delegate of the Andalusian Government in Malaga have indicated that the interest and commitment of the Andalusian Government and the City Council to make up for the “lack of facilities that existed at the beginning of the legislature” have made it possible for them to start three new health centers are marching in the municipality: one finished, that of San Pedro de Alcántara, and two with projects underway: Las Chapas and Ricardo Soriano.
Likewise, action is being taken to reform, improve and expand the other centers, such as Albarizas, Leganitos and Nueva Andalucía, “And in all these projects the City Council and the mayor of Marbella have contributed and collaborated without hesitation,” Navarro insisted. “Efforts in primary and hospital care in this town will therefore make Marbella the center of public health, the capital of Andalusian public health,” he reiterated.