Some professionals at the Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) primary care emergency center have said enough. They denounce that they have been enduring a plague of cockroaches in the center for more than a year and a half and that they are not willing to tolerate it any longer. To show the dimension of the problem, they explain that in the morning shift last Thursday they managed to kill up to 80 insects. They also ensure that patients "also kill them", that they have filed complaints and that, despite this, the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) does not act. In "all this time", they underline, the ICS has made "3 or 4 actions that are still patches: they refuse to fumigate". Faced with this reality, some workers have taken leave.
They say that the problem (located mainly in the radiology service, located on the -1 floor of the building) appeared a little over a year and a half ago, when in each of the shifts they detected several insects. Soon there were already five; later 7, 15…. and so on until reaching the current situation: "In the morning shift on Holy Thursday we killed 80." The workers with whom La Vanguardia has been able to speak explain that the cockroaches, which “appear everywhere”, run around at will “through the service and among the patients”. They assure that the company "refuses to fumigate" alleging that "it is very expensive to close the center for two days" and that, in addition, it can be "harmful to patients." Failing that, it has carried out “3 or 4 actions” that in the end have been innocuous: “Now they cover a chest; now a slot...".
They have been dealing with this problem for so long that some professionals have decided to take sick leave due to stress. “You go to work with a lot of anxiety. You are doing an X-ray on a patient and you see how several insects come off the ceiling”, denounces one of them. "I do not conceive that workers of a public health service have to be killing cockroaches."
Fuentes de Salut, for their part, explained to this newspaper that in 2022 "various actions" were carried out to control cockroaches in the center that were successful and that thanks to them "the plague could be controlled."
They admit that throughout 2023 they "detected" their presence again and that new actions were carried out. They argue that the bulk was carried out during Holy Week and that now "a very significant reduction of the plague has been verified."
Some of the affected workers acknowledge that the number of insects has decreased, but stress that they still exist. This was expressed yesterday to those responsible for the ICS Barcelonès Nord occupational health unit, with whom they met. “The proposals that they made us? More of the same. That when they can, they will clean the downspouts and cover holes and that eradicating the plague is very difficult”. By the way, no smoking. "They explained that in 2004 they did it at the Joan XXIII hospital in Tarragona and there were personnel who were contaminated, and they decided not to fumigate anymore."
