The University Hospital of Torrevieja has announced a reduction in its security staff as it faces challenges in managing a new emergency care unit at the Acequión Health Centre, which has been operational since August. The decision comes as the hospital aims to keep the same budget for security despite needing to extend coverage hours. During the day, three security agents will be present instead of four, but this will drop to only two from ten in the evening until seven in the morning.

Sources within the healthcare system have raised concerns that two security guards on duty overnight in a facility with two hundred and seventy-nine beds are inadequate. They believe this reduction could compromise safety measures, particularly in emergencies such as fire evacuations. The hospital’s management has indicated that this staffing change is temporary, pending a renewal of the security contract scheduled for March twenty twenty-six.

In a statement provided to the media, hospital officials suggested that the reorganisation aims to ensure continuous and safe attention across all healthcare environments during this transitional period. They confirmed that three professionals would be assigned to the hospital and one to the new emergency care point at the Acequión Health Centre, which now operates twenty-four hours a day.

The security service contracted in the past has intervened an average of one point six times daily to manage risky situations at the hospital, with three hundred and twenty-seven urgent interventions last year. Given the rise in incidences involving both patients and their families, there is hope that the renewed contract will require an increase in funding to bolster security provisions at all associated facilities.