EU citizens accused of costing local hospitals millions of euros a year

Costa Almería News | Noticia

One of Almeria’s three major hospitals revealed last week that costs for treating EU citizens for 2011 tipped the two million-euro mark as payments for reciprocated medical accounts across the EU states were liquidated.

Huércal-Overa’s state hospital, La Inmaculada, topped the province’s two other medical centres, Torrecárdenas and Hospital de Poniente, spending 33 per cent more on treating the expat resident and floating foreign population - in particular Brits, according to some press reports.

The hospital’s location dictates that it takes in patients from areas which already have a large, recognised, resident expat population, in towns such as Albox, Arboleas, Mojacar, and Bédar, as well as covering tourist resort catchment areas, again including Mojacar and, more recently, Vera playa.

Health delegate for the province, Manuel Lucas, stated in recent press reports that the Inmaculada hospital was responsible for more than 40,000 EU residents, the majority retired, and cited that the hospital had such a high reputation that it was attracting more than its fair share of ‘health tourism’. 

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