Costa Blanca's Calpe maintains Red Cross agreement

FAVOURABLE VOTE: Calpe will keep Red Cross ambulance. Photo credit: Calpe town hall

CALPE’S municipal corporation voted in favour of formalising the Costa Blanca town’s ambulance agreement with the Red Cross on a temporary basis. The town hall termed the agreement “unregulated”, but councillors agreed that supplementing the regional government’s ambulance service was for the time being the only way of covering Calpe’s needs. In an emergency, the health system’s ambulances based in Denia and Benissa are insufficient, the town hall maintains. It is common to wait 30 minutes for them to arrive, Policia Local reports reveal, and in April last year, an 80-year-old resident died while waiting two hours for an ambulance. Calpe currently pays the Red Cross to provide extra help although the regional government insists that this is not within the town hall’s remit. The Valencian Community’s Sindic de Greuges (Ombudsman) Angel Luna has now sent an official complaint to the Generalitat’s Health department asking for details of the Marina Alta’s ambulance service after receiving information regarding the lengthy and potentially dangerous delays suffered by Calpe.
 

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Lisa Burgess

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