The Regional Ministry of Health has put out a bid for the construction of two additional buildings at the Torrevieja University Hospital. These structures will use modular prefabricated technology and house the enlarged rehabilitation and outpatient services. The buildings will be made in a factory and then brought to the site to be put together. They will be in the green space of the west wing, next to the main structure, and will take up about 750 square metres. The enlargement of the outpatient clinic will span over 400 square metres, while the expansion of the rehabilitation centre will cover slightly under 350 square metres.
The Rehabilitation expansion project has a starting bid price of €1,147,299 (including VAT), while the new outpatient clinic modules have a starting bid price of €1,308,490 (including VAT). Both budgets need to include the cost of project management, which is more than €150,000. Once the contract is signed, both projects will take three and a half months to complete.
Buildings that are made in advance
The prefabricated buildings, which were put together at the factory save for the last step of putting them together on site, will be on the ground floor. The rehabilitation area will have an access zone, a waiting room and reception area, a hall with four consultation rooms, and change rooms for workers. The gymnasium will also feature two patient changing rooms, a living area, a storage room and three consultation rooms, one of which will have a loo. All of these will be accessible from the same hall.
The centre comprises 72 outpatient clinics, 5 for cancer treatment and 3 for rehabilitation. Each year, 250,000 people visit these clinics. The Regional Ministry of Health says that this is a 12.5% increase in just the last two years, which makes the investment worth it. The Ministry says that this rise is due to the growing population in recent years and the associated need for healthcare from “foreign retirees and expatriates”. This makes it harder to keep the quality of care high. The addition is supposed to add twelve extra rooms for medical consultations, as well as a waiting space and facilities.
The Ministry of Health says that this is necessary at the Torrevieja University Hospital because “it is experiencing a significant increase in its healthcare activity” and there isn’t enough room in the gym and the consultations associated with the Rehabilitation area to do treatments.
The Consell’s original estimates for the investment in new infrastructure were way off. They said they would spend more over €20 million when they took over running the centre. It did, however, spend money to double the number of staff and improve the hospital’s technology.
The Generalitat has handled both bids fairly quickly. It finished giving out the contracts for writing the projects, both of which went to Goelín Arquitectos, and getting them approved in nine months. This was possible because it started the paperwork for this contract by asking the Torrevieja City Council for permission to plan the city in May 2025.
But the Ministry of Health’s plan showed, based on the information it gave, a bigger investment than the one it will really make.
The second floor of the west wing of the main building at the University Hospital of Torrevieja features a big rehabilitation space. The programme is, however, completely overloaded by demand; therefore, all patients can only have a limited number of rehabilitation sessions. Once these sessions are used up, patients are not allowed to use the service again, even if they have fully recovered.
| Concept | Built area (m²) |
|---|---|
| Rehabilitation gym | 99,16 |
| Treatment Room | 14,36 |
| Pediatrics | 16,49 |
| Pelvic floor | 14,89 |
| Toilet | 2,83 |
| Women’s Clothing | 20,93 |
| Men’s Clothing | 18,28 |
| Store | 6,84 |
| Be | 7,33 |
| Control | 6,92 |
| Access | 6,51 |
| Wait | 17,42 |
| Circulation | 17,53 |
| Toilet changing room 1 | 3,43 |
| Toilet changing room 2 | 3,43 |
| Order | 21,04 |
| Query 1 | 19,23 |
| Query 2 | 19,23 |
| Query 3 | 21,21 |
| TOTAL | 337,08 |
Not very easy to get to
The present Rehabilitation area, which opened when the health centre opened in 2006, is ironically the hardest to get to in the hospital. This is because people who utilise these facilities need more access, especially when patients don’t have an ambulance or orderlies. The project clearly says that the Rehabilitation area is an expansion of the service. This would mean that the area that Rehabilitation now utilises will still be used for the same purpose and can’t be used for anything else, like inpatient rooms. The University Hospital, which has about 230 beds, most of which are in single rooms, already needs extra beds right away. It is increasingly having to double up on beds to handle the stress of caring for patients.
When the Generalitat ended its contract with Ribera Salud, the company that built the existing hospital and whose fifteen-year concession period had run out, it promised to spend more than 20 million euros on infrastructure, but that money has not yet been spent. This has not happened during the current Popular Party government or the Botànic coalition government.
Investing money
The small amount of money that will be spent on this expansion is the biggest infrastructure investment the department has made since the Ministry of Health took direct control of the area from a private company between 2006 and 2021.
Since then, the Health Department has spent money on hiring more workers, which has increased from 1,200 to 2,200, and on completely renovating all the technology in services like haemodialysis and the laboratory, which cost millions of euros. It was required to buy two new CT scanners, among other reasons, because the firm Ribera took over the one that had been updated in 2020.
The Health Department also used pre-made modules to make the Pharmacy section bigger. The health centres in Guardamar and Orihuela Costa were supposed to get bigger, but they haven’t happened yet. In the case of Orihuela Costa, the delay is because a new centre was chosen instead of an expansion. The project to completely renovate the La Loma health centre in Torrevieja has also not happened yet.
Even though it was only meant to serve 100,000 people, the Torrevieja health department now serves around 230,000. The centre takes care of people who live in Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Pilar de la Horadada, Rojales, Guardamar del Segura, San Fulgencio, San Miguel de Salinas, Los Montesinos, Benijófar, and Formentera del Segura.
People and local councils are pushing for a full expansion, like the one that is almost done at Vega Baja Hospital for 80 million euros, or for the building of a second hospital for the coastal and pre-coastal areas of the region. This is happening because of overcrowding in important services like the Emergency Department and especially because of the long wait times for surgery and specialist appointments. These delays are good for the growing private healthcare industry, which runs a private hospital and several clinics in the area.
Author: Derek Appleton
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