The management of a public hospital near Barcelona have told a Spanish army unit deployed to help with disinfection work that its services were not required. Soldiers had turned up at Badalona's Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital - colloquially known as Can Ruti - on Thursday morning as part of their deployment all over Spain under the state of alarm responding to the coronavirus pandemic. But, as hospital sources confirmed to ElNacional.cat, they were told the areas of the hospital they wished to disinfect were already clean and they were turned away.
The Military Emergencies Unit (UME) has been in the city of Badalona this week disinfecting various public areas and facilities after a request from Socialist party mayor Alex Pastor. They have disinfected public spaces and facilities, some nursing homes and health centres, and the municipal market. Pastor said he was positively surprised by the "agility and speed" of the military, saying their work is "now beginning to be visible" and that he welcomed any initiative to "preserve the health and safety of the city".
With regard to the visit to Can Ruti, the Badalona city council says that it had given no order to clean anything at the hospital. The military unit had gone this morning to clean bus stops and areas adjacent to the facility. "They were never going to enter," said a council spokesperson, also stating that the hospital itself had requested cleaning of its lobby and access and that the army planned to return to disinfect them.
The UME arrives in Badalona after last week passing through the port of Barcelona and El Prat airport. Before leaving Badalona, mayor Pastor said, the military would "instruct" the municipal services on how to carry out preventive cleaning during the state of alarm period, so that the city council could tackle a more "specialized" type of cleaning than usual, in response to the current crisis situation.
On Wednesday, military convoys also arrived at Hospitalet de Llobregat, on the other side of Barcelona city, and the inland Catalan town of La Pobla de Segur.