The situation has become unsustainable Torrejon University Hospital. After a team from the Ministry of Health came to the center on Wednesday to verify on the ground “adequate service provision” and announce the procedures and controls, … Pablo Gallart, CEO of Ribera Salud, asked the company to distance itself from running the hospital, according to Europa Press.
The CEO’s decision comes after hearing an audio clip published in the newspaper “El País” proving that he gave instructions to reject patients or get rid of unprofitable practices. The company announced that it would conduct an “in-depth” audit.
The Ribera Healthcare Group explained in a statement: “To guarantee the values and ethics that have always characterized the group, Pablo Gallart has asked the President of Ribera, Emmanuel de Goyser, to distance himself from the responsibilities of the management of the Torrejon Hospital while the group conducts an in-depth audit.”
The published audio recording contains part of Gallart’s intervention before twenty company and hospital directors on September 25. “In Torrejon in years 22 and 23, we decided as an organization to make an effort to reduce the waiting list. “The only thing I’m asking is: ‘Let’s retrace the path,’” Gallart says in this audio recording. Likewise, he urges adjustments “to get to an EBITDA of four or five million.”
Ribera Salud stressed that it would launch an “in-depth” audit to ensure “there is no violation of quality standards in patient care, professional ethics or the law.”
As he points out, the “absolute priority” of the group and its largest shareholder, Vivalto Santi, “is and will continue to be his patients.” Thus, it has ensured that “service and patient care will continue with the same quality and precision as always.”
“Ribera Health Group maintains its commitment to the public health system by continuing to provide the best possible patient care. This has always been a priority for Hospital Torrejón and Ribera during its 26-year history.”
The Ministry of Health indicated that since Pablo Gallart had left the hospital, it would request a new meeting with the “president of the company,” and hoped that a date would be set “immediately,” Europa Press reported.
PSOE-M and Más Madrid announced on Wednesday that they are preparing legal action against the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso against the practices of the concessionaire of the Hospital Torrejón de Ardoz that seeks to “increase its economic benefit.”
The Ministry of Health reported, in a statement, on Wednesday, that a multidisciplinary team from this administration of the Community of Madrid, headed by Fátima Matute, had come to the hospital to verify the appropriate provision of service in all its regions. In addition, he has urgently called a meeting with the company’s senior management, although the CEO’s departure will force him to reschedule that meeting.
He announced, “After the results of both procedures appear, the ministry will take all measures and controls that may be met.” “Under no circumstances will any type of actions or practices that could harm access to healthcare, which will always be provided with the highest quality and under equal conditions in all hospitals of the Madrid Health Service,” stressed the management of Fatim Matute.