EIGHT HEALTH CENTERS TO RECEIVE AFTERNOON EMERGENCIES

Eight health centers in Almeria are opening their doors for additional periods, in order to deal with urgent and emergency cases. This additional service will be provided on weekdays, from Monday to Thursday, between the hours of 3 and 8pm.

This will allow Distrito Sanitario to reorganize their emergency services with the aim of reducing waiting times for those individuals who are in extreme pain and discomfort, particularly in normally the busy ER centres la Bola Azul and the Hospital Provincial, Hospital Torrecárdenas and El Toyo.

The eight health centers Health centres that have introduces this additional service are: Alcazaba, Ciudad Jardín, Cruz de Caravaca, avenida del Mediterráneo-Los Molinos, Nueva Andalucía, Oliveros, Plaza de Toros and Virgen del Mar (behind de la Bola Azul).

This change has been launched to coincide with the “usually quiet” period in the hospital emergency rooms and appears to be working well, although there are currently too few users to assess the system properly at this time.
Health officials say that in the event that the system does not yield results, Almería District “will go back to it’s usual points of emergency.”

The head of Primary Health Care in Almeria city and the surrounding metropolitan area, Margarita Acosta, says that she is confident that when users have an emergency, they will choose the most appropriate health resource. This will prevent overcrowding in all of the existing centres. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, ER reception at all of these health centres will be 24 hours, as usual.