FIRST STONE OF THE NEW INCA HOSPITAL LAID

THE first stone of Inca's new area hospital was laid yesterday, by Balearic leader Jaume Matas.
The new building, which will cost more than 35 million euros, will cover an area measuring some 24'600 square metres. It will service a sector of 21 towns and villages and its inauguration is planned for the end of 2006. Accompanying Matas at the event were the central government delegate, Miquel Ramis; the Mayor of Inca and Speaker president of the Balearic Parliament Pere Rotger; the Balearic government deputy leader Rosa Estarás; the second vice-president of the Council of Majorca, Dolça Mulet; the Balearic Health Minister, Aina Castillo and her predecessors, Aina Salom and Francesc Fiol . Inca Area Hospital will service an area where 110'000 people are currently living and will be built on four floors, one of which will be semibasement. Amongst other facilities, it will have 126 rooms, an operating section with four theatres, an obstetrics unit with a childbirth delivery room and a postnatal area and four rooms for post surgical recovery. The centre will have a day hospital with different laboratories, up-to-date means of diagnosis through tacograph, mammograph and ecograph imaging; a heliport for top priority emergencies, an assembly hall, a library, two halls for teaching, and single and double rooms, all on the ground floor and with access to the gardens. Other services that the new hospital will provide will be 26 external specialist consultancies, 24 hour emergency cover (including 2 rooms for resuscitation), gynaecology, dialysis and rehabilitation. Health minister, Aina Castillo, confirmed that her department is “in complete control of the construction programme” in order to ensure its timely completion within the space of 36 months. She was confident that the centre will begin accepting patients at the end of 2006 but pointed out that a decision had still not been made about the management system. Jaume Matas called attention to the presence at the day's event, of the mayors of the localities of Inca, Sa Pobla, Consell, Llubí, Alaró and Binissalem. He asserted that the hospital was a project that everyone wanted to see begun and brought into operation. “Within a few years, we will be able to see the Islands having a hospital network that will be the envy of everybody” declared Matas, who called to mind other health centre projects in the pipeline, namely the new building at Son Dureta, another in Mahón on Minorca and a hospital to be built on Formentera. The Balearic leader, who emphasized that when the new Inca hospital comes into service, “no Majorcan will have to wait more than 20 minutes to get to a hospital”, attributed the project's political spearheading to Pere Rotger and praised the struggle of local people to help bring it to fruition. The Mayor of Inca similarly brought recognition to the efforts over many years of different politicians who were in favour of the hospital but gave “first prize” to inhabitants of the area who had campaigned tirelessly for such “an historic day”.