MEDICAL staff at Marbella’s Costa del Sol hospital are forced to live in their cars and camper vans due to ‘extortionate’ Costa del Sol rental prices.
Workers accept jobs at the hospital, one of Malaga’s largest, to gain experience and improve their future prospects, but many must commute from other provinces.
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They arrange their shifts to travel back and forth between home and the hospital, yet during work periods they are forced to set up makeshift homes in the hospital’s car park.
Reporting by La Opinion de Malaga revealed the scale of the troubling situation.
Sara, one of the medical staff interviewed by the paper, is from Albacete and slept in the car park for 12 consecutive nights.
She explained: “I slept in the back seat of my car. I had a suitcase with a change of clothes for the twelve days and an empty backpack. I worked afternoon and night shifts so I could spend as little time as possible there and get home sooner.”
“You wonder if all that effort is necessary…going through such a hard time, giving up time with your family. It’s very hard. I’ve cried many times,” she continued.
With a salary of €1,200 and a rental room costing at least €600, she explained that renting is simply unaffordable.
Another healthcare worker, Maria, noted the ‘extortionate’ cost of renting on the Costa del Sol saying, “Landlords ask for up to €600 for rooms that don’t even have windows with no access to a bathroom or kitchen.”
Maria travels between the hospital and her hometown and explained the difficulty of the situation: “You’re on the road all day. And that’s how we live. We barely survive, because this isn’t living.”
Meanwhile, Carmen has lived in the hospital car park on and off for five years.
She initially lived in a van, which she eventually had to sell, and later moved into her car.
A friend’s husband modified the vehicle so she could have a cabinet and a bed, allowing her to rest after working 16-hour shifts.
Carmen told La Opinion de Malaga, “It’s tough. You have to eat at the hospital because you can’t cook in the car. My life went from the hospital to the parking lot and from the parking lot to the hospital.”
The CSIF union, which represents healthcare workers, has called on the hospital’s management to take ‘immediate measures’ and say that the hospital is on the ‘brink of collapse’.
They say that many healthcare professionals are resigning or refusing to accept contracts at the hospital as they ‘cannot accept temporary positions without a place to live’.
The ‘utterly deplorable’ situation is contributing to staffing shortages at the hospital, and they warn it will worsen during the summer months as pressure on the healthcare system increases.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marbella Leisure Residence, just 3.5km from the hospital, was used as emergency temporary accommodation for the hospital’s healthcare professionals.
The publicly-owned building has since been sold and is being converted into a hotel.
CSIF says this is an example of ‘irresponsible management of public resources on the Costa del Sol’ which harms essential workers and the public.
They called on the Andalusian regional government to act quickly or risk the loss of more healthcare workers.
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