Hospital getting back to normal

“SPOTLESS!” is a habitual expatriate reaction to Costa Blanca hospitals.

But approval was temporarily on hold at Alicante city’s General Hospital after a two-week strike by its 300 cleaners.

They downed tools because their November and December wages had not been paid and they had not received their Christmas bonus.

Contractors, Kluh Linaer, claimed that they too were waiting for payment from the regional government’s Health department, but have now paid the employees.

Although the emergency room, intensive care, maternity wards, delivery rooms and operating theatres as well as the kitchens were not affected by the strike, rubbish piled up elsewhere. 

Around 10,000 kilos of rubbish accumulated during the strike, cleaning staff revealed.  At one stage the regional Health department had entertained the idea of bringing in Proteccion Civil (Civil Defence) to clean the hospital, as it did during a strike at Valencia’s La Fe hospital in 2000.

“I’m disinfecting the bathrooms with bleach and ammonia because they are in a terrible state,” one cleaner told the local Spanish media.  “I’m doing what I can with the floor, because even the mop is sticking to it after all this time.”