Alex Trelinski
THE Valencian government has been cleared of negligence over the lack of PPE gear for medics during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Valencian Superior Court(TSJ) has overturned three rulings in lower courts brought by the Medical Union in Alicante, Benidorm, and Valencia that found in their favour.
Those hearings between October 2020 and February 2022 found the Valencian government were culpable of not guaranteeing the safety of medical staff and offered varying degrees of compensation ranging between €2,000 and €49,000.
In voiding the verdicts, the TSJ said the government was ‘not guilty’ in breaching its obligation to guaranteeing safety at work because though ‘the early stages of the pandemic did have a PPE shortage, preventive measures were deployed’.
The judges pointed out that a lot of ‘normal’ medical activity was suspended and there was a €1 million initial investment in getting protective equipment for medical staff.
The TSJ concluded that the Valencian government did not have a ‘passive attitude’ during the outbreak of the pandemic and it ’caused suffering and pain for the whole population’.
The Valencian president, Ximo Puig, has always maintained that his administration did its best under unique circumstance.
The TSJ ruling can be appealed before Spain’s highest legal body, the Supreme Court in Madrid.
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