Casares demands better healthcare and a doctor from Monday to Friday

Under the slogan ‘Our town deserves health and wellbeing’, around 300 residents of Casares gathered at the doors of the local medical centre to demand decent health care for the municipality and to be able to count on a doctor from Monday to Friday. At present, Casares only has a doctor for two days a week who travels from the health centre in San Luis de Sabinillas. During the demonstration, more than 300 signatures were collected and complaints were lodged at the clinic itself until the available forms were exhausted.

This week, the federation of health and social-health sectors of the CCOO criticised the fact that the doctors with quota are being moved from Sabinillas to Casares on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays there are only two nurses at the Casares clinic with no doctor available to attend to patients. The CCOO also pointed out that this situation is causing delays of more than 20 days in health care at the Sabinillas health centre, a fact which is aggravated at this time of year due to the increase in population.

Juan Luis Villalón, mayor of Casares, said that "the demands are for equal care, without cuts, which guarantees the basic right to health, a fundamental pillar of the welfare state”. “Casares town hall will continue to firmly demand what is fair: quality public health care for all Casares residents,” he said.

He also explained to SUR that the council itself is already financing an important part of the health costs "despite the fact that health care is not a municipal responsibility”. “For many years we have been paying for the 24-hour ambulance service and emergency medical attention in the afternoons so that the town is not left without health cover," he explained.

On the 15 of May, Villalón met with the Andalusian government delegate in Malaga province, Patricia Navarro, to discuss several pending issues between the town hall and the Junta de Andalucía. Among the demands made, the mayor demanded support to maintain the emergency health services that the council is assuming, "despite the fact that health is the responsibility of the regional government”. “We are making this economic effort for the citizens of Casares, but there are other aspects that must be solved by the regional authority," he said.

"An unsustainable situation in the long term which," according to Villalón, "highlights the municipality's commitment to its residents, but also the lack of response from the regional government, which must guarantee the right to health as an essential and universal service".