A Valencian hospital is accused of reusing disposable material
Several reports allege that the Elche health center disinfected catheters without the assistance of a specialized company.
ValenciaRibera Salud, the company that manages the Vinalopó University Hospital, which serves the health area of the Valencian cities of Elche, Crevillent, and Asp, allegedly reused medical supplies to save money. This is revealed in an email. revealed this Wednesday by Eldiario.esIn the document – dated October 6, 2025, and addressed to the heads of the public hospital in the Madrid town of Torrejón, which is managed by the company itself – the head of auditing orders them to follow the example of the Valencian health center and, after disinfection, reuse electrophysiology catheterswhich is a disposable material if It is not sterilized by a specialized companyIn fact, almost a year ago, Bellvitge Hospital launched the first electrophysiology catheter reconditioning circuit in Catalonia in collaboration with an external company.
The Ribera Salut financial expert who signed the email claims that the Madrid hospital is spending too much money compared to the Valencian one: "The average number of catheters per procedure in Torrejón is 2.02 vs. 0.59 in Vinalopó (potentially avoidable savings of over 10)." She then describes the conditions under which they are being reused and urges the supervisors to "talk amongst themselves" about how to "perform sterilizations."
After the news broke, the Ribera Salud group issued a statement denying that disposable medical supplies are being reused at the Vinalopó University Hospital and asserting that an inspection by the Valencian Ministry of Health on Friday, January 16, confirmed that "disposable materials are not resterilized." The company also alleges that in recent months it has been the target of a "strong smear campaign" with information originating from "Malicious leaks of internal company information, sometimes manipulated and always taken out of context."
Audits
Similarly, the Valencian Minister of Health, Marciano Gómez, confirmed this Wednesday that a recent inspection of the Vinalopó Hospital did not detect any irregularities in the use of medical supplies such as catheters. "The center, like the rest of the hospitals in the Valencian Community, is subject to periodic audits and controls." The Community of Madrid also confirmed this, emphasizing that the audits carried out at the Madrid health center concluded that no surgical material was reused. This news comes after last December The Country The company released several audio recordings of Pablo Gallart, the top executive at Ribera Salud, in which he gave instructions to lengthen waiting lists and reject patients requiring high-cost treatments at Torrejón Hospital. Ribera Salud asserted that the recordings were taken out of context and that such practices had not occurred at any of its facilities.
