The future psychological well being heart in Majadahonda lacks a challenge whereas the present combat towards the attainable presence of rats and cockroaches | Madrid News | EUROtoday

Consultation quantity 5 of the Majadahonda Mental Health Center has had its door closed for nearly two weeks. Inside, there’s a stench that has been the final straw within the state of affairs of this well being facility that serves greater than 425,000 folks from 11 municipalities within the northwest of Madrid. In mid-May, the middle's employees alerted of suspicions of a attainable presence of rats within the services, positioned in a semi-basement of about 200 sq. meters underneath the Cerro del Aire well being heart. Health activated the protocol and referred to as a pest management firm that set traps and poison. A number of days later, a nauseating odor invaded all the things and, little by little, it turned particularly robust in session quantity 5. This has been verified by the Amyts union – in addition to the Platform for Health of Majadahonda and the Neighborhood Association of the identical municipality – after a name from the union delegates of the Puerta de Hierro Hospital, on which the psychological well being heart relies upon. During the final electoral marketing campaign, the Community of Madrid promised and promoted within the press a brand new heart, over 1,700 sq. meters and with a price range of 4.5 million. A 12 months later, there aren’t any budgets and nobody has seen the challenge.

María Justicia, Amyts occupational threat prevention delegate, was in Majadahonda on Friday to see – and odor – what the issue was. “The staff began to notice that the paper rolls were gnawed, that the trash cans were lying on the floor and that food remains were scattered on the floor. “They suspected there were mice or rats,” says Justicia, primarily based on what the professionals advised him. After the intervention of the pest management firm, the odor got here and she or he felt it herself in workplace 5. “It's vomitous, a smell like something that's rotting,” she says. In room 5 it turned unfeasible to deal with sufferers and the psychiatrist who had that workplace needed to be transferred to the higher ground, to a Primary Care session. “The pest control company told them that they would follow up and that they would continue searching to find the origin of the smell,” explains Justicia. Meanwhile, the employees continues to serve.

The Ministry of Health explains that “a few weeks ago” “the origin of the possible vector” was being evaluated and that the incident had been resolved. For prevention, in any case, this Thursday they’ll act once more in all of the pipes and ducts. “The Center has all the relevant hygienic and sanitary measures,” defends a Health spokesperson. However, the Amyts union will current a grievance this Thursday to the labor inspection of the Puerta de Hierro Hospital for the circumstances wherein psychologists and psychiatrists present providers. Because, because the union and citizen organizations denounce, the attainable presence of rodents is only one episode within the listing of complaints concerning the services of the middle wherein 22 psychiatrists, 8 psychologists, 3 social employees, 6 nurses, 4 directors work. and 1 management assistant.

For instance, a few weeks in the past, a cockroach fell from the ceiling onto one of many administrative employees's positions. On the opposite hand, six workplaces don’t have air flow and 4 lack air con and heating. In winter, professionals should attend consultations with their coats on and, in summer season, they prepare dinner of their workplaces. “On Friday during the visit, one of those consultations had a thermometer on the wall and at 1:00 p.m. it read 29 degrees. “It is something that violates the law on the prevention of occupational risks, which says that in office work they should be between 17 and 27°,” recalls the Amyts delegate and adds: “The conditions are regrettable, we don't know how they hold up.”

These and other complaints coincide with those offered by two sources familiar with the situation, who ask to reserve their identity, for fear of reprisals. They denounce, for example, that there are no security personnel, so, in emergency cases, they depend on the civil guard to arrive quickly. In the consultation rooms in the north wing there has been no light for a month and, in the afternoons, they sometimes have to use their cell phone flashlights.

Some residents of Majadahonda have been asking for maintenance at the clinic for more than a decade, according to Marisa Torres, a member of the Public Health Platform. After the pandemic, when an uptick in mental health disorders was detected worldwide, the situation at the center became even more critical and the platform sent a letter with all the complaints to the Ministry of Health and contacted the opposition parties in Majadahonda, historically governed by the Popular Party. They managed to have the issue brought to the Health Commission of the Madrid Assembly in December 2022 and there the former Vice Minister of Health Care and Public Health, Fernando Prados, recognized that there were “difficulties” within the psychological well being heart and a rise in demand for providers: between 2019 and 2021, the variety of new sufferers elevated by 21%. “Options are being sought to relocate this center,” Prados mentioned on December 19, 2022. That 12 months, the PSOE of Majadahonda had offered a movement for the brand new headquarters to be constructed subsequent to the Valle de la Oliva well being heart.

A number of months later, in the course of the electoral marketing campaign, the Community of Madrid introduced that it might construct a brand new psychological well being heart on the plot proposed by the socialists. The new infrastructure, of 1,700 sq. meters, would value about 4.5 million euros, as reported by the newspaper ABC. But, the challenge doesn’t seem within the 2024 normal budgets and the one factor that has been recognized is that the Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, met with the municipal mayor Lola Moreno to “address the urban development progress of the new mental health center.” , in line with Europa Press. The Ministry of Health responds that the challenge “is being addressed” and that extra info can be supplied when there may be administrative progress. Socialist councilor David Rodríguez has introduced that he’ll take the difficulty to the municipal plenary session and that he’ll ask that it attain, as soon as once more, the Health Commission of the Assembly to demand velocity within the works.

While the tender arrives, Zacarías Martínez-Maíllo, president of the Majadahonda Neighborhood Association, asks that funding be made within the upkeep of the middle. “This is not a question of action-reaction, but of prevention. There must be maintenance of a public facility that is very sensitive because it affects citizens who go to mental health care. But today it is a disaster,” says the neighborhood chief and reveals a well being report that they printed in March, along with the well being platform, with the rosary of issues skilled by the professionals and sufferers of the municipality.

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