Fuengirola Will Have 24-Hour Emergency Services: Where the New Center Will Be Located and What Is Known About the Project

Fuengirola will have a new 24-hour, 365-day-a-year Primary Care Emergency Center. The Andalusian Regional Government and the City Council have formalized the action protocol that will allow the construction of this health facility on a municipal plot located on Santa Amalia Avenue, with a planned investment of 1.9 million euros by the Andalusian Health Service. The agreement was signed by the acting Health, Presidency, and Emergencies Minister, Antonio Sanz, and the Mayor of Fuengirola, Ana Mula, at an event held at the SAS headquarters. The plot mentioned in the protocol is located at number 21 Santa Amalia Avenue and spans over 1,100 square meters. The project already has an updated functional plan to meet the health needs of a city with 85,598 residents, a number that significantly increases during the summer season due to the tourist and residential pressure on the Costa del Sol. The new Primary Care Emergency Service (SUAP) will allow Fuengirola to have permanent urgent medical assistance within the municipality itself. Sanz highlighted that this infrastructure meets a "historic demand" from the residents, who demanded a stable health resource without having to travel for part of the urgent care. The Regional Government frames the protocol within its strategy to improve health infrastructures in the province of Málaga, especially on the Costa del Sol, an area with high care pressure for much of the year. The future SUAP will be built on a municipal plot on Santa Amalia Avenue, in the western area of Fuengirola. The City Council had made this land available to the regional administration in 2021, after conveying the health shortcomings detected in the municipality to the Ministry of Health and Families and the SAS Management. Since then, both administrations have maintained contacts to study the proposal and advance in a new health facility in Santa Amalia. In a previous agreement, signed on April 25, 2022, the SAS had already proposed an emergency health center with resources such as radiodiagnosis, analytics, observation beds, and sufficient staff to handle most of the urgent situations that occur in a city like Fuengirola. The goal was to avoid, as much as possible, trips to other hospitals in the province and to improve immediate attention to patients, as explained at the time by the then manager of the SAS, Miguel Ángel Guzmán, and the mayor Ana Mula. However, the agreement signed today between the mayor and the minister Antonio Sanz redefines the action as a new Primary Care Emergency Service (SUAP) and specifies the location and planned investment, although it does not yet detail the execution schedule or the opening date. Fuengirola currently has three health centers and a Primary Care Emergency point in Las Lagunas, shared with the population of Mijas Costa. This facility serves a population of over 170,000 inhabitants, a circumstance that has reinforced for years the claim for its own emergency service in Fuengirola. The new infrastructure aims to transform urgent care in the city and reduce the care pressure on other health resources in the area, especially during the months of highest influx. The Regional Government links this action with other health interventions developed or planned in the province of Málaga. Among them are the inauguration of the Los Pacos health center, the renovation of the Los Boliches center, and the expansion of the La Carihuela center in Torremolinos. Sanz also mentioned the expansion of the Costa del Sol University Hospital, unblocked with an investment of 93 million euros and operational since March, as part of the health investment effort in the region. Also attending the protocol signing were the Deputy Minister of Health and Consumption, Nicolás Navarro; the managing director of the SAS, Valle García; the regional delegate of Health and Consumption in Málaga, Carlos Bautista, and the councilman of Fuengirola and provincial deputy Francisco José Martín.