Known for sharing her fight against cancer in networks for three years, Mar Villanueva (1982, Tineo) has managed to mobilize the Northwest around a single objective: to solve the problems suffered by the Hospital de Jarrio. The Sanitary Area I has important deficiencies that both users and health workers have been denouncing over the last few years.
– Do you think there is political will to resolve them?
– Between the citizen pressure and the one that all the political parties are exerting, I believe that they will end up solving the situation. I also think that the regional government will have problems getting doctors.
-What are the concerns of the neighbors?
-The main concern that they convey to me is that the hospital is closed. We have been with health problems for fifteen years and we do not see that they are solved. This gives rise to think that the end of Jarrio may be near.
-What’s happening at the regional hospital?
– We are missing ten doctors, in addition to the four retirements that there will be. The squad, not counting the team leaders, should be made up of 100 specialists.
-What led you to create the platform?
– The suffering of people, both professionals and users of Hospital de Jarrio. I have been an oncology patient for three years. The treatment I have had from the toilets has been magnificent. I have created a very special bond with them, which together with what I consider to be mistreatment towards them, was what made me explode. The Jarrio staff have suffered a lot, they have had a very bad time, but also many sick people and their families.
-He has also written a book.
-Yes, I published it in March 2020. All the money raised has been earmarked for the Jarrio Hospital and the Association for Metastatic Breast Cancer (ACMM). I mistakenly believed that by donating to the hospital it would make politicians see that the hospital is not alone.
-And what happened?
-I started to see a political attack, they used Jarrio’s problem as a throwing weapon between the different parties.
«100% services»
-Talk about a great mobilization for the month of July. What are you preparing?
-We want to see facts. If in April they do not begin to implement the first measures to help Health Area I, a caravan of cars will leave from all the northwestern councils to go to Oviedo. If the health situation allows it, we will focus on the General Board of the Principality. I want to be heard throughout the region.
-What role will the Todos Somos Jarrio Association play?
-We are with the procedures for its creation. It will be made up of seven women from the northwest who will cover the 17 councils. We want to grow little by little. Now our objective is that all the services of the Sanitary Area I are covered 100%. From there, we will ensure that there are no deficiencies again.
-How is the situation in the health centers?
-There are constantly changes in Primary Care physicians. For older people, especially, it is very important to have a familiar face when you open a door. It is essential that physicians know the patient well.
“It is time to fight”
-In the southwest there are also problems. Are you in contact with the neighbors there?
-We all have to unite if we want to achieve something, now is the time to fight, but we do not want politicians involved in neighborhood movements. We are not going to allow them to take anything from us and what is missing to be put on.
– Todos Somos Jarrio says that “the West is abandoned in many ways.”
-You only need to go around any of the councils in autumn or winter. You don’t see people and that is a sign that something is failing. As a mother, I would like my children to have the choice between leaving or staying tomorrow, but that it is not an obligation to have to leave.
-The rural world is revaluing with the pandemic.
-The pandemic has valued rural areas. If politicians are smart, they will realize that a country cannot live off tourism. It is time for the rural world to regain all that it has lost for many years. Its potential must be exploited. To fix population, resources must be made available to the population.
-What is necessary?
-From good internet access so that people can telework or study, as well as for entrepreneurship and business establishment; even a good leisure offer. They force us to go to the cities on weekends because we have nothing here.
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