The Popular Parliamentary Group has tabled a motion in the Regional Assembly for the Government to cede the Naval Hospital, which is under the ownership of the Ministry of Defence, to the Cartagena City Council. The deputy María Casajús, promoter of the initiative, indicated that «currently and against the will of the citizens of the municipality, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has the permission of Defence to dispose of these facilities and convert them into a temporary stay centre for immigrants (CETI) to which hundreds of people from the Canary Islands have already arrived».
Faced with the possibility of this temporary camp becoming «a permanent centre», when the city already has a temporary centre for foreigners (CATE) which attends to immigrants arriving on the coast of Cartagena, «it is more necessary than ever to obtain the transfer of the old Naval Hospital to the municipality and give it a use in accordance with the needs of its citizens», according to Casajús.
In addition, the deputy recalled, «the mayor of Cartagena made this known last November in a letter to the Minister of Defence, claiming ‘maximum interest’ to achieve this transfer», but «has yet to receive a response».
The Naval Hospital, built by Defence in 1985, ceased its military function in April 2008. At that time an agreement signed between the regional government and the Ministry of Defence allowed more than two hundred professionals who made up the staff to join the Murcian Health Service.
«Taking on the healthcare staff who worked at the Naval Hospital represented a great effort for the local and regional administration to avoid the relocation of a large group of people who worked and had raised their families in Cartagena,» according to Casajús. From that moment on, the facilities hosted civilian health services until the inauguration of the Santa Lucía Hospital in 2011.