OAP Healthcare Headache

EU must examine funding issues, states Elche professor

THE EUROPEAN Union urgently needs to respond to issues surrounding the mass migration of pensioners to Spain, according to a report based on Britons who have retired to the Costa Blanca.

Professor Inmaculado Hurtado at Elche's Cardenal Herrera university examined the topics of aging, health and care since the 1970s. He researched the lives of Britons aged 55 and over in areas including Santa Pola, Torrevieja and Elche to reach his conclusions.

Sr Hurtado claims the EU never considered free movement of its citizens would be taken advantage of by retirees, as it was conceived for workers.

He says politicians have mistakenly viewed this as tourism instead of migration.

The academic insists governments must now analyse and implement strategies and resources over lack of funding for healthcare.

"The EU has not organised compensation between countries well, there are loopholes in the laws and a lot of money is being wasted," said Sr Hurtado.

He also notes publicity campaigns by various Spanish institutions are partly responsible for the wave of migration.

"Governments sell land, sun and health and people come looking for this," he assured.

One chapter of his study examines the problem of British retirees concentrated in big urbanisations forming 'urban islands which make it difficult to integrate and relate with the native population'.

Town halls are partly to blame for 'reclassifying land as urban enabling the construction of macro urbanisations conceived for this collective'.

Read more in this week's Costa Blanca News edition

By Alex Watkins