Verge del Toro to become public health centre

The old Verge del Toro Hospital in Maó is scheduled to be turned into a public health centre, grouping together various services and with an area set aside for patients needing medium and long stays in hospital. The Balearic Government plans to tackle the conversion before the end of its term of office.
Last summer the Government and the Island Council ordered a report to be prepared by the Consorcio Hospitalario de Catalunya (CHC) on the state of the building and its suitability as a public health centre and this is now being used to decide on a specific use for each of the former hospital's five storeys. The initial idea is to reserve two of the floors for purely health-related purposes, i.e. hospital beds and an area for rehabilitation. The Island Council proposes using a further two storeys to group together various services, which are at present housed in several places, such as the pharmacy which supplies medicines for the old peoples homes and the Santa Rita Centre, the headquarters of the Menorca Public Health Consortium and the treatment centre for drug addicts.
The Department for Social Affairs has expressed an interest in using part of the building as a centre for handicapped people and for the Menorca Assessment and Orientation Team, currently situated in Avenida Vives Llull.
The Department of Health's Director General for Planning and Finance, Juli Fuster, explained that, although Menorca's hospital needs were easily covered by the Mateu Orfila Hospital at present, medium and long term plans needed to be made to resolve future problems caused by an ageing population and longer life expectancy and the added pressure that these will place on the medical services.
The Verge del Toro has lain empty since patients were transferred to the new Mateu Orfila Hospital in May 2007 and during the intervening period has been subject to various acts of vandalism and pilfering, adding to the deterioration caused by the passage of time.