The San Juan de Dios Hospital in Navarre refuses to apply euthanasia

The Ombudsman of Navarre has found that the San Juan de Dios Hospital refuses to carry out euthanasia in its facilities, either by its professionals or through visits by teams of the Navarro Health Service, so that fromthe San Juan de Dios Hospital it is necessary to transfer to the University Hospital of Navarre persons seeking assistance in dying at the end of their lives.

These are not isolated cases, but, as Patxi Vera Ararteoka has explained, this is a systematic practice of the private hospital, to which the public health system in Navarre has its palliative care directed, almost entirely, so the damage is general.

"No one should suffer unnecessary displacement in the last few hours of his life for organizational reasons, let alone for breach of the law," Vera stressed.

In fact, the refusal to apply euthanasia is illegal, as reported by the Guarantee and Evaluation Committee at the beginning of the year. The fact that the patient has to be transferred to a public hospital undermines the quality of the service and is also often done despite the clinical contraindication of the centre's professionals.

The Ombudsman has now issued two recommendations, one of which is that palliative care in the Foral Community should be provided directly to the University Hospital of Navarre, so that it would not be provided in an arranged centre, in this case of religious origin, linked to the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios.

On the other hand, it has asked the Department of Health to formally request achange of attitude from the private facility to stop resigning and adopt a protocol to allow euthanasia to take place in its facilities, "ensuring the intervention of non-target professionals or the entry of external teams."

"The law is clear: the place where the benefit is provided cannot become a barrier or a source of harm to the patient," the Ombudsman said.