- José David Zafrilla: "After 15 years of management, we left a health department at the forefront of health, an international benchmark and with high patient and professional satisfaction"
- Torrevieja has the shortest surgical delay in the Valencian Community, patients wait less than in the rest of the public departments for an external consultation, it has more specialties, and fewer referrals to other centers, more efficiency and exemplary management of the COVID crisis, according to public data endorsed by official reports.
On October 15, the Ribera health group ceases to manage the Torrevieja Health Department which, after 15 years of administrative concession, ends with excellent care and management indicators. This has been revealed during the press conference that, this morning, the managing director of the Torrevieja Health Department, José David Zafrilla, has offered, and in which he has taken stock of the fifteen years of management, in addition to remembering which Ribera's investment in the area would have been if he had continued in charge of the Department of Health.
Ribera leaves the Torrevieja Health Department, being the best in the Valencian Community in terms of health care, management and promotion indicators, according to official data from the Conselleria de Sanitat Universal i Salut Pública itself and other reports from the Generalitat Valenciana .
Among other data, the figure for average surgical delay has been highlighted, since patients in the Department are the ones who least expect surgery in the Valencian Community. Torrevieja patients wait a month and a half less than those of other public hospitals, according to official data for the month of September 2021. Likewise, users of the Torrevieja health department have an average of 30 days to obtain a first consultation with a specialist doctor, well below the average for the Valencian Community.
This is endorsed by the report commissioned by the Ministry of Health to the Audit Office of the Generalitat Valenciana, the body in charge of controlling the accounts of public services, which concluded that the Torrevieja University Hospital is more efficient and has better health results than the rest of public hospitals in the Valencian Community.
According to the report of the Sindicatura, Torrevieja Salud is 30% more efficient than the rest of the public hospitals in the Valencian Community, which translates into savings of 45 million euros per year for the citizen's pocket. In addition, the document highlights that this economic efficiency is linked to the achievement of health objectives established in the management agreements. It highlights the broad portfolio of hospital services, a total of 67 specialties to offer citizens complete health care with complex services not available in surrounding centers, which, together with adequate management, allows it to be one of the hospitals that fewer patients are referred to other centers. The report also states that the degree of satisfaction of Torrevieja Salud patients, evaluated by the Ministry itself, exceeds the average for the Community.
"All these data show that the decision not to extend the administrative concession contract to the Ribera health group has been taken by the Ministry of Health without taking into account any technical criteria and only based on ideology," said José David Zafrilla, who has added that "the experience of previous reversals, specifically that of the Hospital de La Ribera, has turned out to be a true failure, with the worsening of the service offered to patients, the increase in waiting lists, the deterioration of infrastructures and the bad work environment." In this way, the Generalitat Valenciana breaks the basic rules of collaboration between companies and the Administration, and transfers the idea that it does not matter how things are done; whether it is done well or badly, the result is the same, which puts the quality of the health service provided to citizens at risk”.
In this sense, the hospital management assures that the work of the team of professionals during these 15 years has been impeccable and that "we have risen to the occasion in every difficult situation, especially during the COVID19 pandemic, in which this hospital has been an example for other centers”. In this health crisis, the Torrevieja Health Department treated a large volume of patients compared to other hospitals and, nevertheless, registered the lowest rate of infections among professionals in the Valencian Community and a figure three times lower than the national average.
According to Zafrilla, "after 15 years in charge of the Torrevieja Health Department, we are absolutely convinced that our indirect management model is more favorable for the 160.000 patients assigned to the department than the traditional direct management model, so it would have been a exercise of responsibility that the Valencian Administration would have kept it that way, even more so after the global health crisis of the coronavirus ”. In this sense, the managing director regretted that the opportunity to "make two management models coexist that can complement and enrich each other" is being lost.
As the Manager points out, "with the reversion of this health department managed by an administrative concession, we are going backwards in the health evolution of our country, precisely in a Community that is lucky enough to be able to carry out a serious exercise of comparison between models to advance towards modernity”.
For this reason, "we wanted to be responsible and leave a Strategic Plan for the next managers that allows us to maintain the levels of quality of care that, during all this time, we have achieved in the department and that contemplates an investment, for the next 5 years of almost 40 million euros in new infrastructures, technology and digital transformation, which allow us to take on the challenges that healthcare and Torrevieja will inevitably present in the coming years”. In addition, and as an exercise in transparency, the Department's management has invited the regional deputies of all the parties with representation in the Valencian Parliament, so that they could see first-hand the balance and state of the Department's situation.
The management of the center has assessed the decision to change management as unilateral. In this sense, he recalled that the reversion of the Torrevieja Health Department will be made effective in breach of the Stability Law, according to the General Intervention of the Generalitat itself, due to the lack of economic reports on the cost that direct management will entail and that justify the rollback process.
José David Zafrilla concluded his speech by reiterating that "we are proud of the work carried out in these 15 years, and we want to especially thank the professionals for their dedication and effort, which has been reflected in the 50 awards obtained in this period, such as the prestigious Joint Commission accreditation International. And, of course, to our patients, for their loyalty and trust”.
