A woman more than six months pregnant went to the Arnau de Vilanova Hospital in Lleida on Thursday for her routine gynecological appointment. The patient did not receive medical assistance due to the doctors' strike call and remained at the health center for more than an hour without staff informing her of the service cancellation.
The couple has filed a formal complaint against the hospital management for the lack of prior notice regarding the cancellation of the scheduled appointment. The center's managers did not offer any alternative to reschedule the patient for another time that same day.
Administrative silence during the wait
The only resource that the healthcare staff made available to the expectant mother was to refer her to the Emergency department. This option was disproportionate for a routine pregnancy check-up, which generated frustration and uncertainty in the couple.
No one came forward to inform them.
The affected individuals report that they would have continued waiting indefinitely if they had not actively inquired about the status of their appointments after exceeding sixty minutes of waiting. They lose two hours of their workday between traveling to the hospital facility and the sterile wait in the room.
"We understand that they have the right to strike, of course, but in the hour and a bit that we were waiting to be attended to, no one came to inform us that they would not attend to us" - The affected couple
Other women in similar situations shared that same experience of misinformation within the hospital. All of them remained in their seats without receiving explanations about the paralysis of ordinary medical activity caused by the labor dispute.
Unease about the third quarter
The advanced gestation of the woman aggravates the concern about the lack of adequate medical follow-up. Being in the third trimester and a first-time mother, the absence of the scheduled ultrasound generates doubts about the state of the fetus and the preparation for the imminent birth.
"I am in my third trimester of pregnancy, if the consultation were in the first trimester, I wouldn't worry, but I'm going to give birth soon and I'm a first-time mother and we are restless" - The patient
The situation becomes complicated because they have another appointment with the midwife scheduled for next Monday. There is well-founded fear that they may not be attended to correctly at that appointment if they lack the results of the ecological test that they were supposed to do on Wednesday.
The hospital charged more than six euros for vehicle parking despite not providing the contracted medical service. This economic detail adds indignation to the feeling of institutional abandonment that users experienced during the protest day.