“The University Hospital of Melilla (HUME) comes to put at the forefront of public health in Melilla, to which all Melilla citizens have access regardless of the purchasing power of the citizen.”
The Delegate of the Government in Melilla, Sabrina Moh, in the program of 'The Start', of Television Melilla, has assured that the new University Hospital of Melilla represents "a substantial improvement" for the public health of the city, and has explained that work is currently being done on the project for its full operation.
Moh, who explained that a hospital “does not open from zero to one hundred, never, none of the world, neither Melilla nor any other”, has highlighted that the new healthcare infrastructure has state-of-the-art equipment, the result of an investment of 150 million euros aimed at a population of 74,000 health cards.
The head of the Government Delegation Moh has reported that consultations, rehabilitation services have already been launched and that new benefits are gradually being incorporated. In this regard, he stressed that the hospital will have a staff of 1,100 people, “the largest in history”, what he has made clear is a sign of the commitment of the Government of Spain to improve healthcare in Melilla.
“The University Hospital is going to assume that, throughout these months, it will function completely,” he added, recalling that the new infrastructure is eight times larger than that of the Regional Hospital, with 45,000 square meters.
More professionals and less pressure
What’s more, the Delegate has also pointed out that there are currently 30% more doctors than a decade ago, with 52 more doctors than when the People’s Party ruled, 15 of them incorporated in 2024.
Moh has also pointed out that, since the closure of the border, health care pressure has decreased by 34%, which is in addition to the increase in staff to improve health coverage. “We are talking not only about doctors, but also about more vigilance, more cleanliness, more of everything. And that’s what we’re working on,” he said.
The Delegate insisted that the objective is that all Melillense citizens have access to quality public health, regardless of their purchasing level and recalled that the construction of the hospital was a commitment made in 2018 by President Pedro Sánchez and accused the Popular Party of having paralyzed the project for seven years with “a thousand excuses”.
“We have made three modifications, we have had extended budgets, a pandemic, an increase in the price of material, and the work has not been paralyzed for a single day, because the objective was to give the Melillenses the hospital that was claimed for so long,” Moh made clear.
Among the new services planned, he has highlighted that Melilla will have care for heart attacks without the need to refer patients to the peninsula, as well as a pediatric ICU and a Da Vinci machine, a surgical team valued at two million euros that allows less invasive interventions and faster recoveries.
Finally, he has assured that the necessary staff will be hired to make the hospital fully functional: “We are putting all the interest, all the effort to bring staff” and he recalled that the need to fill positions of health professionals “is not a problem of Melilla, it is a national problem”.