Two operating theatres and the wards will be closed

Clínica Salus quits the Centro de Medicina Avanzada in Maó

The group has cancelled the rental agreement it has had with the clinic since 2003 and has also started to lay off around 40 employees, including doctors

C.M.W..Maó

Due to economical reasons, the Salus Group has rescinded a rental agreement it has had with the Centro de Medicina Avanzada since 2003 and will leave the premises at the end of the year. The group has also started to cancel the contracts of around 40 employees, including doctors, nurses, administrative auxiliaries and technical auxiliaries, who work in the centre.

From now on the clinic situated in calle Sant Sebastià, Maó, will only accommodate the consulting rooms and the nuclear magnetic resonance imaging service which is run by the Grupo de Medicina Avanzada. The two operating theatres and the hospital wards which until now have been run by Salus will be closed. The wards have been used by many patients, who have recently undergone operations in the Hospital Verge del Toro, for convalescent purposes; these have now been warned that they will have to leave the premises today.

Claudia Bagur, the Medical Director of the Clínica Menorca which belongs to the Grupo Salus, announced on Tuesday that people who had insurance with the group in Maó would now receive attention in the Policlínica Virgen de Gracia.

The Head of IB-Salut, the Balearic Health Authorities, Claudio Triay, stated that public health patients who would previously have been referred to this private centre will now be treated at the Virgen de Gracia Clinic. Under an agreement signed in 2003 between the Medicina Avanzada private medical centre and IB-Salut, national health patients were sent to the clinic for operations on two days per month in order to reduce the waiting lists at Maó´s Hospital Verge del Toro.

From 80 operations to only 40

During 2004 the Centro de Medicina Avanzada in Maó carried out around 80 operations on national health patients. However, this year the figure has fallen to just 40 operations..

In May 2003 the Clinic and IB-Salut signed a four-year agreement in an attempt to reduce national health waiting lists. Under this agreement up to 350 operations, between 7,000 and 10,000 consultations and magnetic resonance imaging scans would be undertaken by the clinic on behalf of IB-Salut.