A BRAND-NEW health centre should be open in Marbella by next spring, giving the Costa del Sol town 'an indispensable facility' to help cater for its growing population and ever-increasing tourist numbers.
The old Ricardo Soriano town planning centre (in the picture below, by the town hall) will become the new GP practice, and the local council will fund the actual building work, according to mayoress Ángeles Muñoz.
Staffing and equipping the future surgery will be taken care of by Andalucía regional government's health authority.
The job of constructing the clinic has just been put out to tender, with a budget of nearly €2 million and a deadline for bids of March 28.
Once the contract has been awarded, the work will be finished within 12 months.
By then, it will be April or May 2023, and assuming the equipment has already been ordered and is ready to move in, the practice could be open by summer next year, or shortly before.
Sra Muñoz says the health centre will be 'a hugely important facility for Marbella town', as it will 'reduce queues and patient numbers at the main Leganitos surgery' and will 'benefit a high number of Marbella residents'.
It will also benefit holidaymakers and long-stay visitors, since whichever practice they use will have a reduced workload as a result of redistributing patients.
Marbella council has been campaigning for the extra clinic for 'over 10 years', Ángeles Muñoz says.
Totalling 1,800 square metres over three storeys, the top floor will have 10 specialist consultation surgeries, two extra paediatric units in addition to those on the first floor, four nursing stations and five multi-purpose consultancies, plus one for pregnant women, and seven waiting rooms.
The first floor will include the odontology area, two blood-test rooms and two waiting rooms.
Admin and management staff will be on the lower ground floor along with the radiology, dental X-ray, mammogram, physiotherapy and rehabilitation units.
The mental health department will remain in the Las Albarizas medical centre, but the council plans to expand and refurbish it to enable it to cater for more patients.
