“Without comprehensive care, eating disorders (TCA) cannot be overcome,” says Patricia Cervera, president of the Andalusian TCA Association. From their entity, they denounce that more than a year ago that the Health Delegation in Granada keeps closed the integral unit in the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital and offered hospitalization to people suffering from this disease. Although the Granada Unit was one of the pioneers and opened thanks to social pressure, today only offers external consultations and hospitalization in the morning. Health has explained to Eldiario.es Andalusia that the hospital that housed it is remodeling and that in “extreme cases” there are three beds available in the Children’s Maternal.
At present, the unity of this area in Andalusia is in Malaga. The Malagaña opened its doors as Granada, thanks to the social pressure exerted by the TCA Association of Andalusia, which was established in 2019 with the aim of seeking comprehensive care for this disorder from public health. Thus, more than 315,000 signatures were collected that served for the first Andalusian executive of the popular Juan Manuel Moreno to open a first unit of external consultations and day hospital in Malaga that same year. In July 2020, he opened the second in Granada with the same services.
According to the data handled by the Association, obtained through the Ministry of Health, these types of units are very necessary in public health because in Andalusia there are about 30,000 people suffering from this disease. Therefore, that the Hospitalization Unit for TCA of Granada, which had four beds at the Virgen de las Nieves hospital, not work since September 2023, leaves 8,000 citizens of Jaén, Granada and Almería without access to this attention through of public health. “They can resort to private, but hospitalization can exceed 5,000 euros per month,” says Patricia Cervera.
An essential unit
In this context, the association is concerned with the closure of a unit that offered comprehensive care to those patients who needed it in Eastern Andalusia (Granada, Almería and Jaén). Now, only external consultations and hospitalization are offered only in the morning. Patricia Cervera knows well how much it takes just what is missing, which is hospitalization with comprehensive care, since her own daughter, who now is around 30, has suffered from almost 20, which led him to mobilize to create the organization and press the Junta de Andalucía to open these units. “TCAs have to be treated with hospitalization because external consultations only serve to follow up on people who are overcoming the disease,” says Cervera.
According to the president of the association, the closure of the Granada unit is not an isolated event. Throughout the last years, “the conditions of attention to people with TCA have been precarious and unequal throughout Andalusia.” The lack of adequate hospitalization, as is the case in the Granada unit, implies “a health policy that prioritizes the superficial and improvised about what is really necessary to save lives,” says Cervera. “Four rooms in a hall shared with Oncology are not enough to serve people who require specialized and long -lasting treatment. Nor is it the best option if it is a corridor without good lighting because people who are admitted need to take care of their mental health. ”
However, now that possibility is not because those four beds no longer work: “The protocol for care for eating disorders remains insufficient and while they continue to put patches without a comprehensive approach, the situation of the patients worsens.” In fact, the closure of the hospitalization unit has occurred, as they point out from the association, through “excuses” that have been delaying their reopening. “They have told us about maintenance works or problems of lack of professionals due to vacations, but in the end the reality is that it has remained closed,” says Cervera.
Today, patients who want to receive comprehensive care in Granada, especially from Jaén, Almería and Granada itself that was the coverage area, should go to private health or wait for them to refer them to the Unit of Malaga . “Not even head doctors themselves know the existence of these units because a lot of work is missing in the dissemination and awareness of the TCA,” they point out from the association.
Closed by “works”
In spite of everything, health sources point out that the unit is closed because the hospital is old and maintenance works are being done. However, the dates they point out do not coincide with the reality that the association exposes. According to health, the hospital began its remodeling in April 2024, but the hospitalization unit, as reported from the collective, has been unused since September 2023. In any case, official sources argue that in “extreme cases” there are three beds Available in the area of the child maternal, something “insufficient” for the association.
“What about adult patients?” Patricia Cervera, President. In his opinion, from Health they are putting “excuses” because, although they point out that the will is to reopen hospitalization in the place where they were, “they do not offer any specific date.”
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