Madrid medics protest forced hospital transfer
Unveiled on December 2020, the new hospital has generated controversy with regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso of the conservative People's Party billing it as a reference center for COVID patients in the city.
Many health workers, Madrid residents, and opposition politicians, however, say the 100 million euro building is a "white elephant" and far from being a functional hospital.
Health worker unions argue that a new hospital is not needed and instead more staff need to be hired.
With more than 4,000 COVID patients in hospital in the region, health workers say intensive care units are on the verge of collapsing and the solution is not to transfer frontline workers to the new building they say is not equipped with an ICU unit.
