Nurse shortages risks lives in Spain

PUBLISHED: March 3, 2013 at 10:02 am  •  LAST EDITED: March 2, 2013 at 11:25 pm
Andalucia, Lead  •  1 Comments

• Nurse shortages in Malaga

A LACK of nurses is posing a serious risk to the health of patients in Malaga claims the Union of Nursing (Satse).

The leading health union has carried out a review of all the hospitals in Malaga and come back with some shocking statistics.

Figures reveal that in the Malaga province there are around 247 nurses for every 100,000 patients, half the number available in the rest of Spain.

In Spain as a whole there are 488 nurses to every 100,000 residents, still significantly fewer than the rest of the EU which has an average of 797 for every 100,000 in habitants.

Satse also claim there are currently more than 60 patients waiting for beds in the Malaga province and patients with tuberculosis (a highly contagious disease) are being kept in the same units as uninfected patients due to a lack of beds and space in hospitals.

Hospital bosses have denied the claims but admit they do have a shortage of resources involving staff.

It is thought that an extra 1,000 beds are needed in all the hospitals in Malaga to meet the current demand.

Satse say they are also concerned because an emergency operation on a cancer patient had to be postponed earlier this month at the Nursing Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Malaga because there was no nursing staff to oversee the operation.

They also say the recent lack of recruitment drives to employ nurses has led to remaining staff members feeling ‘disabled and exhausted’.

The union is now in talks with its members over taking possible strike action.

 

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