Patients stage uprising in understaffed Madrid hospital 03/04/2008 00:00

Angry patients fed up with waiting for hours start to revolt for the second consecutive day.

3 April 2008

MADRID - On Tuesday, for the second consecutive day, police were called to intervene at Henares Hospital's Emergency Centre as angry patients fed up with waiting for hours in overcrowded halls without seeing doctors started to revolt.

The first uprising was on Monday when the daughter of a 79-year-old patient called the police after her mother suffered two heart-attacks during her five-hour wait for someone to see her. Many other patients had similar complaints for the police.

Before the hospital reopened in February, local health unions had protested that it suffered from serious infrastructure and personnel deficiencies. On Monday, however, the Health Ministry attributed the chaos to rising patient numbers due to a strike by primary care physicians.

[El Pais / Expatica]

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