The Camp de Tarragona Platform for Public Health maintains for this Saturday the demonstration in Tarragona to demand that the thrombectomy service of the Joan XXIII University Hospital operates 24 hours a day throughout the year and not with the new partial model that comes into force this very day.
The protest will start at 18:00 hours in Plaça Imperial Tarraco and will end at Hospital Joan XXIII. The mobilization coincides with the first day of operation of the thrombectomy service 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the Tarragona center.
The hospital extends care to all days, but only by day
From this Saturday, Joan XXIII will perform thrombectomies every day of the week. Until now, these interventions were done from Monday to Friday. The new 12 7 service will operate between 08:00 and 20:00, a step that the platform considers insufficient.
The collective asks the Department of Health for a reorganization of the service in Catalonia so that thrombectomies can also be performed in the early morning in Tarragona. The demand is supported by the fact that 24-hour care already exists in different hospitals in Barcelona and in the Josep Trueta Hospital in Girona.
José Martín Carrasco, secretary of the Federació d'Associacions de Veïns de Tarragona, maintains that the improvement achieved does not solve the underlying problem.
"Today, the only thing we have achieved is the 12 7" - José Martín Carrasco, Federació d'Associacions de Veïns de Tarragona
The platform insists that Tarragona cannot be left out
Representatives of the platform met on Wednesday with the delegate of the Government in Tarragona, Lucia Cerdán, and with the director of the Territorial Health Services, Marta Milà. In that meeting, they conveyed that the territory needs a permanent service and that it cannot remain in a position of inferiority with respect to other demarcations.
"Having achieved 12 hours has only been half a battle won" - José Martín Carrasco, Federació d'Associacions de Veïns de Tarragona
Carrasco also defended that the complete implementation would be viable in the short term.
"The opinion that the doctors are giving us is that having 24 hours is feasible and can be achieved in a short time" - José Martín Carrasco, Federació d'Associacions de Veïns de Tarragona
The platform refuses to wait for the deadlines that have been moved by the administration. Its demand is that the 24 7 service arrive immediately and not by the end of 2027. Carrasco recalled that the forecasts have been changing over time and assured that the group also does not trust that it can be achieved in September of next year.
The testimony of a patient reopens the healthcare debate
Among the voices that have joined the claim is that of Josep Maria Pons, affected by a stroke three years ago. He explained that he suffered the episode on the street, a Friday at noon, and that he was evacuated by ambulance to Hospital Joan XXIII.
"I lost consciousness and woke up after 10 days in Barcelona at Hospital del Mar" - Josep Maria Pons, patient affected by a stroke
Pons recounted that he has no lasting effects, although he highlighted the impact the situation had on his closest environment. The patient was first treated in Tarragona and later transferred to Barcelona, a journey that the platform places at the center of its claim to reinforce the healthcare response in Camp de Tarragona and also in the Terres de l'Ebre area.
This Saturday's call thus remains as a protest to make visible that the announced hourly extension does not close the conflict. The platform considers an advance achieved, but maintains that the demand will remain on the street while Tarragona does not have thrombectomies 24 hours a day, every day of the year.