Red faces at brand new hospital as beds do not fit in lifts

PATIENTS  at the recently-opened Hospital de la Serrania in Ronda, in Malaga province, southern Spain are being transported by ambulance between some floors as patient beds do not fit in the lifts.

The multi-million pound facility was opened with a fanfare by President of the Junta de Andalucia Susana Diaz in March.

On the ground floor are numerous outpatient consultation suites, while on the first floor are the accident and emergency department, radiology and laboratories.

They two floors are joined by a staircase, an escalator and a conventional  lift – but it does not have the capacity to take a hospital bed.

If a patient goes to an outpatient clinic and presents with an unexpected and serious health problem that needs urgent care and they cannot be moved in a wheelchair, then an ambulance is needed to transfer them to the first floor.

The former mayor of the town, Mari Paz Fernández,  said,”It is ridiculous to have patients move from floor-to-floor- by going outside and in an ambulance.”

She also said she discovered another problem at the new hopsital and that some doors had to be modified because they  were too narrow for the beds used by the Andalucian Health Service (SAS).