The policy of cuts to public health applied in Catalonia has caused the closure of referral hospitals, like the Bellvitge hospital, and the closure of Primary Medical Centers (CAPs), making the quality of medical care deteriorate. One of the closed CAPs is the Rambla Marina CAP, leaving a barrio of nearly 30,000 residents (10,000 of whom are older than 60) with only one outpatient clinic. Since 28 October 2011, Bellvitge residents have continuously occupied the Rambla Marina CAP, even during Christmas, to demand its reopening. Perhaps the goal of all this policy is to privatize public health, making it impossible to receive diligent quality care without paying for it.
Bellvitge Residents Occupy Rambla Marina CAP, 28 October 2011
Bellvitge Protest March
from Plaza Cataluña to Sant Jaume, 4 January 2012
Antonio Santos Espigares lives in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city to the immediate southwest of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. This letter was published in El Periódico on 4 January 2011. Video by Jose Serrano. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). For more information about the Bellvitge residents’ Rambla Marina CAP occupation, follow <twitter.com/#!/bellvitge50> and <twitter.com/#!/AcampadaLH>.
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