Several groups in defense of Public Health denounce the transfer made by the Ministry of Defense to the Quirón Group for the privatization of the Chamberí military hospital for 75 years. The Citizen Audit of the Health Debt and the Coordinator of Neighborhoods and Towns of Madrid in Defense of Public Health defend that there are “several elements surrounding this transfer” that “could be indications of the commission of crimes,” the two say. organizations in a statement.
The complex was built in 1950 under the name of Hospital del Generalísimo Franco and was used for military purposes until its closure in 2001. Since then it has remained closed. The Ministry of Defense called for a tender for the exploitation of the facilities last November. The process with the awarding of this place to the only bidder, the Jiménez Díaz Foundation, dependent on the Quirón Group.
The assignment will last for 75 years, the maximum allowed by legislation, in exchange for a fee of 180 million euros, which will be paid periodically by Jiménez Díaz, distributed in annual installments throughout the concession period.
Among the obligations included in the concession, the Quirón Group must build a parking lot of almost 10,000 square meters on the plot. A third of these places, located in the third basement, “will be at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense,” according to the tender documentation. The car park must be operational, at the latest, by the third year of the concession. That is, throughout the year 2026.
From the complaining organizations, they assure that Jiménez Díaz presented itself to the call as a Temporary Union of Companies. A legal figure, which can only aspire to manage contracts for “25 years, which clashes with the fact that it has been granted the concession for 75 years,” they add in the statement.
Along the same lines, they consider that the economic “consideration” that Jiménez Díaz has to pay is “unusually low.” “With an average monthly cost of 8 euros/square meters and does not foresee any updating coefficient over the years,” they point out. And they add: “A transfer under these conditions could represent a loss for the public treasury of 80.1% in the next 25 years on the annual price, and successively even greater losses during the remaining 50 years of the contract.”
“On the other hand, the justification made by the public tender is vague and generic, covering only the need to use the empty property. Being a Hospital, and being in the center of Madrid, very close to the San Carlos Clinic, wouldn’t it have been more logical to maintain it as infrastructure for the saturated and deteriorated Madrid public health system, for example? Why a private foundation and not a public administration? The lack of justification and the absence of a study of the needs and possible uses of the building turn this concession into a presumably arbitrary act,” the complainant organizations report.
The organizations promoting the complaint assure that it was presented this morning in the investigative courts of Madrid. “We understand that with this citizen complaint, an investigation must be opened with the support of the Public Ministry to clarify the terms of this concession of a huge piece of public assets, and whether it has complied with all legal requirements and the principles of contracting have been respected. public and general interest or if, on the contrary, it may have involved the commission of economic crimes to satisfy private interests,” they indicate.
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