Red tape in Murcia delays installation of cancer care equipment donated by Amancio Ortega

TWO years after one of the richest men in the world promised 18 cancer diagnosis and treatment machines to Murcia on Spain’s Costa Calida, eight are still to be delivered. 

The reason is red tape that means the installation of the high-tech gear – worth a total of €11.6 million – has not been completed. 

Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega pledged to provide Spanish public hospitals with up to 440 pieces of equipment including the 18 for Murcia. 

The main reason for the delay is the bureaucracy itself. Most of the those pending supply to Murcia’s hospitals are delayed as they wait for pre-installation work to be done. 

The donation includes resonance and mammography equipment, as well as the updating of some of those already in operation. 

So far two new magnetic resonance imaging units are in operation at the Virgen de la Arrixaca and Rosell hospitals; five new mammography units at the Arrixaca, Rosell, Rafael Méndez de Lorca, Morales Meseguer and Cieza hospitals; a high-dose brachytherapy unit at the Arrixaca; and two existing mammography units have been updated at the Caravaca and Virgen del Castillo de Yecla hospitals. 

Among those that are pending installation because previous work has to be done are a linear accelerator for the Arrixaca; three MRIs for the Morales Meseguer, Reina Sofía and Rafael Méndez; three CT scans (computerized axial tomography) for the Arrixaca, Morales Meseguer and Rafael Méndez; and an intraoperative radiotherapy team for the Arrixaca that is pending authorisation from the Nuclear Safety Council. 

The companies awarded the contract are Siemens Healthcare, General Electric Healthcare, Elekta Medical; Emsor and Carl Zeiss Meditec Iberia.