Growing anger in Spain over British "health scroungers" has led to accusations that the country's health services are increasingly being used

Spanish doctors' trades unions are leading the charge against what has become known as "scalpel tourism", with easy-to-get hip and cataract operations allegedly attracting Britons who temporarily install themselves in Spain to skip queues at home.Growing anger in Spain over British "health scroungers" has led to accusations that the country's health services are increasingly being used by the estimated one million British people with homes in Spain to plug holes in the NHS.The Simap trade union said that non-Spanish EU nationals in Alicante, where Britons are by far the largest group, now accounted for 15% to 20% of people treated in local hospitals.
"Spain's health service is quick, free and offers a wide range of services," said Dr Juan Benedito of Simaptoday. "It is not surprising that people come here."
The Socialist former head of the Extremadura region of Spain, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, warned this week that "scrounge tourism" was bleeding money out of Spain's health service.Málaga's Costa del Sol hospital is among those to notice an increase in the number of British patients. "We get an increasing number of cases of foreigners who, taking advantage of the fact that they own a home on the Costa del Sol and that their own country does not cover all that we offer in Andalucía, decide to come to a hospital [here]," the hospital's general manager, Antonio Pérez, told Sur newspaper.Spanish media have been filling up with reports of so-called health scroungers. "Thousands of people from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia travel to Spain every year for operations that, frequently, are not covered by their own health system," the ABC paper claimed recently.One letter-writer to the 20 Minutos newspaper, Federico Avila, said his neighbours in Murcia, south-east Spain, travelled to their holiday home for an operation and then went back to Britain as soon as it was done. "As soon as he was allowed out of hospital they packed their bags and went home, not without first thanking us Spaniards for everything," he said.

Charity workers who help Britons with health problems in Spain say there is evidence that some who live in both countries – known in expat jargon as "dippers" – cherrypick the best health services from each place.

"I haven't come across anyone who has come to Spain specifically for an operation, though," said Pat Lee-Patten, of the Help charity in Alicante province, who rejected the idea that expats' activities amounted to health tourism.Lee-Patten said added confusion was caused by British residents who did not bother to sign on with Spanish health authorities and then asked for treatment using health cards meant for tourists.Bryan Arthur, an "on-and-off" resident of Britain and Spain, chose to have an aortic valve operation at a Costa Blanca hospital because he could get it in two months rather than six, he said."The surgeon in the Costa Blanca hospital spoke English quite well, said I was in urgent need of attention and could accept me in two months and the charge would be on their national health service," he wrote on the euroresidentes website. "So I signed the papers, had the preliminary catheterisation and eventually was admitted."Squabbling over funds is at the root of the complaints, with health authorities in Spain saying that they do not receive adequate compensation for treating EU citizens.

Scrounging foreigners? British expats accused of health tourism in Spain
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.15 BST on Monday 5 October 2009. A version appeared on p9 of the UK news section of the Guardian on Tuesday 6 October 2009.

Stig hanging out in Puerto Banus

Stig hanging out in Puerto Banus. Well the Top Gear blog have has now confirmed that the duo were out in the Costa del Sol filming for a new DVD that will hit the shelves in November.The DVD called Duel will showcase a number of speedy challenges and races. The challenge in question involved a night time street race between Clarkson and the Stig from the Ascari circuit to a bar in Puerto Banus.

Antonio Banderas home ‘La Gaviota’ at Los Monteros in Marbella still under threat

Andalucía High Court has overruled an order suspending demolition of part of the propertyThere has been another set back for Antonio Banderas regarding his home ‘La Gaviota’ at Los Monteros in Marbella.The Andalucian High Court of Justice has rejected the ruling which had suspended the demolition of 150 of the 780 square metres of the villa, as well as the swimming pool for the property, considering that the land invades an area marked on the urban plan as being for beach equipment.
It means that the High Court has agreed with an appeal presented by the Community of Owners of the Los Monteros Urbanisation, against the hopes of both the actor and Marbella Town Hall, which had granted the suspension order until the town’s new PGOU Urban Plan is carried out. Under the new PGOU the house would have been made legal.
The lawyer representing the Community of Owners, Inmaculada Gálvez, told El País that to avoid demolition she had offered Banderas a deal under which he would compensate the community with a quantity equivalent to the loss of value of his property should the demolition take place – a sum estimated at 2.1 million €. But now the lawyer says that the talks are over and the demolition must take place. Marbella Town Hall is expected to launch an appeal.

Civil Guard Colonel?

60 year old man, named by Europa Press as A.L.L., has been arrested by the Murcia Civil Guard after posing as a Colonel in the force for the past nine years. He always carried with him a Civil Guard badge and is understood to have often quoted details of the career history of high-ranking members of the force to give added credence to his claim.Even his former partner, who he was with for five years, believed he was a Civil Guard colonel during the time they lived together.The man used his supposed position to force backhanders out of businesses in Los Alcázares, San Javier, los Narejos and Murcia City with the threat of closing them down if they failed to accede to his demands.The investigation began two months ago after a man whose car was intentionally set alight refused to present an official complaint for fear of reprisals from the arsonist, presumably the false Civil Guard who is now in custody.

Four Civil Guards from Almuñecar, arrested for drug trafficking, on Friday and found with 2,000 kilos of hashish, have been denied bail

Four Civil Guards from Almuñecar, arrested for drug trafficking, on Friday and found with 2,000 kilos of hashish, have been denied bail and sent to prison by Duty Court Number Two in Torrox. One of the four is now known to have been previously based in Nerja.Five other people were also detained on Friday, which saw a large number of police vehicles arriving and leaving from both the Civil Guard barracks in Nerja and in Almuñecar as members of the Internal Affairs division arrived from Madrid. The five others arrested are now reported to include a man from Málaga and two from Cueta.Two of the Civil Guards were caught ‘in fraganti’ when they were moving the drugs in the Güi river in Torrox Costa.More arrests have not been ruled out in the case, which is the third of this type in the past decade.

Foreign Mans Death Cause's riots in Roquetas de Mar Southern Spain

Immigrants went on a rampage in a southern Spanish town overnight throwing stones and bottles at police after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death, police and Spanish media said on Sunday. Police would only say that the killing of a man in the town of Roquetas de Mar, had sparked "altercations throughout the night in which immigrants were involved." Spanish media said African immigrants were enraged by the death of the Senegalese man, 28, who was stabbed in a fight. Daily newspaper El Mundo's website said African immigrants threw stones and bottles at police, and burnt down two homes and two police cars. It quoted emergency services as saying that rioters set up barricades, burnt rubbish bins and cars. A policeman who went to the scene told national radio station RNE that firefighters were called to a false alarm and were directed by a group to where a fire was supposed to be. "They began to throw stones at the cars... They ended up destroyed, with broken windows, dents in the doors, at the front. The only thing there wasn't was injuries," policeman Carlos Manuel Ruiz said. Police arrested three immigrants, the media reports said. Madrid Reuters

Madrid, police shoot and wound armed man.

José Luis AT, was shot by police after waving and firing a weapon at them in the Madrid district of Hortaleza, reported a spokesman for Police Headquarters. The man, who had previous convictions for theft and violence, poor was admitted to the Clinical Hospital in Madrid after receiving at least four bullet wounds in the lower limbs of his body, including the buttocks and abdomen. The event occurred from 1700 hours today at number 6 Calle Manizales, when an anonymous caller alerted police to the presence in the way of a man who brandished a gun in his hand.
A National Police patrol moved in and asked this man to take out his hands from his pockets and to raise his arms, the man responded with several bursts of gunfire.
In this situation, the officers then had to use force to subdue the man. At the scene police found a bag in which he had several guns and knives

Richard Henry Roberts, 36,found guilty of the murder of nightclub bouncer Daniel Hastelow

Richard Henry Roberts, 36,found guilty of the murder of nightclub bouncer Daniel Hastelow after a trial.But another Merseyside man, jointly accused of the killing in the popular resort of Palmanova in January last year, was acquitted by the jury of nine because of “lack of proof”.Roberts admitted stabbing the 26-year-old victim, from Walsall, seven times.But he claimed it was self defence when the four-day trial began on Monday.Yesterday, the jury rejected his claim he grabbed a knife from a table to defend himself when Mr Hastelow attacked him, delivering heavy blows.They convicted Roberts of murder, rejecting a defence plea for a manslaughter

Paul Anthony Griffiths aquitted in Daniel Hastelow murder case

The jury accepted the defence argument that evidence was not produced to support prosecution claims that Paul Anthony Griffiths, 23, also from Liverpool, took part in the deliberate killing of Mr Hastelow.It was alleged Griffiths beat the victim with a baseball bat as he lay sleeping in an apartment in the resort on the island’s south coast.Griffiths admitted being present when Mr Hastelow was killed, but denied taking any part in his death.The jury also dismissed a charge against both accused of breaking into the apartment where Mr Hastelow died.After the verdicts, Judge Eduardo Calderon formally acquitted Griffiths and dismissed him from the court.
The state prosecutor then asked for an 18 year prison sentence for Roberts.He also asked Judge Calderon to order Roberts to pay compensation of 90,000 Euros – around £81,000 – to the victim’s family.The judge’s written sentence will be known later.

Daniel Hastelow murder case

36 year old Briton, Richard Henry Roberts, has been sent to prison for 18 years for killing his compatriot, Daniel Hastelow in January 2008. The court in Palma de Mallorca heard how the accused had stabbed the sleeping victim eight times.
A second Briton arrested at the time, Paul A. Griffiths, was found not guilty and released without charge.The court and jury considered it proved that after an argument in a bar earlier the aggressor, Richard H Roberts, went to the apartment where the victim was sleeping under the effects of alcohol and drugs, broke in and stabbed the victim with a 20 cm long and 4cm wide knife eight times. The other Briton Paul Griffiths looked on.The two were arrested at the airport the following day.Richard Robert has also been ordered to pay 90,000 € compensation to the victim’s family. He has a previous record for violent theft, causing injury and robbery.

Torremolinos Arco Iris will become the first real estate project in Spain that is aimed at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) clients

Arco Iris (Rainbow)will become the first real estate project in Spain that is aimed at LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) clients, with an added condition: residents must be over 55 as the development will also take on the role of a care centre.The building will be located in the very heart of Torremolinos, a town that in recent years has become a favourite holdiay resort for homosexuals. This has given rise to the opening of numerous gay-orientated businesses from clothes shops to bars and restaurants, although nearly always geared towards a younger clientele.
“You would think that all homosexuals are young, beautiful and healthy, but we get old too”, says Antonio Gutiérrez, a veteran gay rights activist who hopes that projects such as this one “will help find a solution for the human dramas suffered by older homosexuals who often have a limited family environment to fall back on as their parents have died and they have no children”.“Loneliness is one of their greatest concerns but many homosexuals we have spoken to believe that moving into a traditional home for the elderly would be like going back to the closet”, explains Íñigo Armengod, director general of Grupo Imnova, the firm promoting the scheme.
The building will have 27 apartments with comforts and services such as cleaners, a social club, a nurse station, and even care for pets, although the main attraction will be a day centre which will be open to residents as well as other members of the general public, regardless of their sexual condition. The apartments will range between 100,000 and 240,000 in price but as yet no date has been set for construction work to start, possibly after next summer.However the gay and lesbian association Colega does

Tax hikes announced by Spain’s Socialist government will increase the cost of the average newly-built property by 2,000 Euros

Tax hikes announced by Spain’s Socialist government will increase the cost of the average newly-built property by 2,000 Euros, thanks to an increase in VAT from 7% to 8% on new home sales. The government will hike VAT (known as IVA in Spain) on new home sales in 2010 to try and plug the country’s gaping fiscal hole.In areas like Madrid and Barcelona, where property is more expensive, the cost will go up by an average of 3,000 Euros, according to José M. Galindo, President of the Association of Developers and Constructors of Spain (APCE). He warns that higher costs will reduce demand for newly built homes, at a time when the market is struggling to digest a glut of them.The more expensive the home, the more VAT to be paid. New homes costing 1 million Euros – fairly common in areas like the Balearcis and upmarket areas of the Costa del Sol, will now cost buyers 10,000 Euros more in VAT, or 80,000 Euros in total.As transaction taxes are not typically financed by mortgages, buyers will have to finance the higher cost from their own capital. The only good news is the increase won’t come into force until July 2010. So if you are planning to buy a new home in Spain, you might want to do so before then.The G-14 group of Spain’s leading developers describe the tax increase as just “another difficulty” for a sector where “all the news is bad”. The G-14 developers (13 of them in total, several of whom are in bankruptcy proceedings) have also revealed that they started just 59 private homes (excluding social housing) between them in the 8 months to August.

Three men from Merseyside on the run in Spain

Three men from Merseyside are on a top ten most wanted list of suspected criminals on the run in Spain.Crimestoppers are asking for ex-pats' help to trace the men, who they believe have fled to the Costa del Sol.They include 40 year old Paul Walmsley, from Liverpool, who's suspected of supplying heroin and cocaine.Another Liverpudlian making the list is Mark Ronald Brown - a 44 year old who's believed to have led a gang who smuggled class As into the UK.Jody Michael Flynn, 28, from Birkenhead, is wanted on a GBH charge.

Woman who suffered years of abuse has called for her attacker to be brought to justice from his hide-out on Spain’s Costa del Crime.

Woman who suffered years of abuse has called for her attacker to be brought to justice from his hide-out on Spain’s Costa del Crime.Investigators want the public to help them trace 10 “most wanted” fugitives thought to be on the run in the Costa del Sol region, including Martin Smith, 44, of North Shields, who is wanted in connection with the rape of a child aged under 16 and gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16.The 44-year-old is accused of raping and indecently assaulting a girl, under the age of 16, over a period of 10 years.He was arrested by police in North Cumbria after his victim found the courage to speak out about the years of abuse she endured throughout her childhood. But he skipped bail in January last year and has been on the run ever since.Last night, as pictures of Smith and nine other dangerous criminals were being circulated among the British community in Malaga, his victim spoke out about the years of abuse that left her feeling dirty and worthless.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she wanted to see her attacker caught so that he would never put another person through the same ordeal.“It was regular abuse. It made me feel awful, small and dirty, and like I had done something wrong and I was the liar and you don’t think anybody is going to believe you. You think it’s all your fault,” she said. “I felt like I needed to have justice done because otherwise it could happen to other people and I don’t want anybody else to go through what I went through. It wasn’t a life, it was torture.”
Smith, who was born in North Shields, but has travelled around the UK, is wanted in connection with the rape of a child under 16, gross indecency with a girl under the age of 16, indecent assault of a girl under 16 and attempted rape of a girl under 16.
The alleged attacks, on one victim, occurred between 1995 and 2005.

Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers

Local council in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella – an area traumatised by years of corruption involving politicians and residential developers – is seeking to retrospectively "legalise" 18,000 homes, which are now found to have been built without appropriate construction licences. But three schemes, all close to the water, have not been included in this de facto amnesty and instead face demolition.
They were built since the introduction of the 1988 Coastal Law (called the Ley de Costas) designed to protect the coastline by prohibiting construction within 100 metres of the high-water mark. "These buildings are practically in the sea," says Barbara Wood, a buying agent, who runs The Property Finders in this part of Spain.