Sagunto hospital patients report waits of over six hours in the emergency department
Patients at Hospital de Sagunto's emergency department say they are waiting up to six hours for care this summer, blaming a doctor shortage, with some treated in the corridors as the unit becomes overwhelmed.
According to several patients, a visit to the emergency department at Hospital de Sagunto this week can turn into a wait that lasts almost the whole day. That is how users recently treated there describe it, putting the time between being triaged on arrival and finally being seen by a doctor at more than six hours.
That figure does not even include the time needed afterwards for diagnostic tests and their results, which some patients put at another two to three hours. Add both stages together and a single visit can eat up most of a working day.
The accounts agree on one thing: an overwhelmed department, with patients waiting their turn sitting or standing in the corridors, due to a lack of space and of medical staff able to handle the number of people arriving, especially at certain times of day.
The most common complaint is that staffing is not reinforced enough during July and August, even though the population the hospital serves grows noticeably at that time of year: regular residents who spend the summer in the area, plus tourists choosing the Camp de Morvedre (the Sagunto district) coast. Patients say that seasonal rise is not matched by more doctors or nurses, and that this is what causes the queues, the long waits and the backlog of patients.
One point is worth clarifying: nobody blames the staff working in the department. Several patients interviewed actually praised the care and dedication shown by doctors and nurses, who have to cope with demanding shifts — some lasting up to twenty-four hours straight — with very few colleagues on duty.
Patients themselves see the problem as one of organisation and resources, not of professional commitment. That is why they are demanding urgent reinforcement of the department from hospital management and the Conselleria de Sanidad (the regional health department), especially during peak demand. Some say they have already filed formal complaints about the delays but have yet to notice any improvement after raising them with management.
The episode reopens a wider debate about public healthcare in the district: the long-pending expansion of Hospital de Sagunto. Population growth itself backs up that demand. According to the register kept by the INE (Spain's national statistics institute) for 2025, the municipality already has 73,031 residents — a figure that supports the argument of those who see that demographic growth, not just the tourist influx, as the real cause of the strain on the service.
On top of that population growth, the summer months bring an influx of visitors to the district's coastal towns, adding further pressure on a hospital that serves much of Camp de Morvedre. In short, what patients using the emergency department are asking for is that this population growth finally translate into more resources: more staff, better organisation and shorter waits before receiving care.
Hospital de Sagunto is the reference hospital for the health department covering much of Camp de Morvedre, serving not only the town of Sagunto itself but also neighbouring municipalities in the district that have no hospital of their own. Because of that district-wide role, patients come to the centre from several towns, not just Sagunto, which by itself raises the daily load the department has to handle. That situation, combined with the population growth of recent years, adds pressure to an emergency department that has already drawn complaints in previous summers, when reduced staffing due to holidays coincides with a seasonal peak in population — a pattern that recurs across much of Spain's public healthcare system every July and August, when part of the medical staff is on leave while the number of people in the area rises at the same time.
The hospital itself has been at the centre of other debates over its capacity in recent years. These include the construction of a new outpatient building of more than 9,500 square metres, intended to expand outpatient care for residents across the district, and the controversy that arose over referring patients to private clinics when certain specialties became overwhelmed. Both episodes reflect an underlying tension that today's complaints about emergency department waits bring back into focus: the hospital's ability to absorb demand that, according to patients themselves, is growing faster than the resources allocated to meet it.
According to El Periódico de Aquí — Sagunto / Camp de Morvedre, with additional data from Wikipedia on Sagunto's population.