The municipal ambulance l'Índia of L'Hospitalet has been out of service since April 10 after the awarded company has entered into bankruptcy proceedings and the judicial administrator has agreed to its liquidation due to lack of viability. The situation leaves in the air the continuity of the resource, coordinated by the Guàrdia Urbana, and also the future of its staff, who also denounce five months of non-payment.
The conflict has opened a new political clash in the city. Several municipal groups question the management of the local government and demand a solution to recover the service or guarantee its coverage by another means. At the same time, workers are looking for job alternatives given the disappearance of the concessionaire company.
Criticisms for the loss of an exclusive resource in the city
Jaume Graells, municipal spokesperson for ERC+EUiA, attributes the situation to the management of the local executive and maintains that "we lose an exclusive ambulance for the city due to the incompetence of the government, which is incapable of enforcing contracts with companies and managing procurement agilely".
From the PP, Sonia Esplugas defends the usefulness of the device beyond healthcare. The spokesperson for the municipal group underlines that "the Índia not only provides health and social assistance to residents, but also provides protection to the agents of the Guàrdia Urbana in preventive actions".
Laura Alzamora, councilwoman of L'Hospitalet en Comú Podem, has linked the debate to emergency response times in the city. She recalls that a few days ago a man died in Santa Eulàlia after the ambulance took 40 minutes to arrive, compared to the 7 minutes of average response that she attributed to the service of l'Índia.
The workers seek a way out while the future of the service is debated
The liquidation of the company fully affects the staff. Jorge García, technician of the Guàrdia Urbana ambulance, explains the uncertainty with which they have been working for weeks.
"We are talking with private companies to see if they hire us and we can continue working. But with the liquidation of the company we lose our jobs and also our years of seniority" - Jorge García, ambulance technician of the Guàrdia Urbana
In parallel, political parties and workers put on the table different formulas to maintain the resource. Among them is to municipalize the workforce or promote a new emergency contract, considering the service essential or raising its degree of specialization.
The local government remits the competence to the SEM
Facing those proposals, the deputy mayor of Security and Internal Government, Jesús Husillos, maintains that the margin of municipal action is limited. He defends that in Catalonia the competence for ambulances corresponds solely to the SEM, the Servei d'Emergències Mèdiques of the Generalitat.
Husillos insists that the debate is not about the essential nature of the service, but about the competent administration to provide it. Along those lines, he maintains that no city council can manage an ambulance neither directly nor through a company.
The SEM will reinforce during June the coverage in L'Hospitalet with two new resident units, whereby the city will come to have eleven vehicles. Meanwhile, the disappearance of l'Índia keeps open the political and labor struggle over a resource that had functioned as specific support for the city and for the interventions of the Guàrdia Urbana.