Dark side of sunny Spain for Britain's elderly expatriates

Jackie Stevens in Denia, Costa Blanca

The Observer, Sunday 9 July 2006

It is a familiar sight in any British hospital. Older women in blue sashes staffing a makeshift charity stall in a busy corridor. But here in Denia hospital on Spain's Costa Blanca, the volunteers have no time to serve tea. The expat-run charity Help is indispensable, providing interpreting and sometimes nursing and aftercare for the growing number of British patients that pass through here.

Tens of thousands of British settlers pursuing a dream retirement in the sun have doubled the population in this area in the past two years - and put a growing strain on a creaking Spanish health service.

Now Spanish authorities say they are placing an unbearable burden on scant medical resources and are demanding that the UK pays for their care. And in a move likely to send a chill through the expat community, Spanish doctors - even those who speak English - are now refusing to treat anyone who cannot speak Spanish without an interpreter present.

Dr Diego Vargas, a spokesman for the Spanish Society of General Medicine, says the language barrier is a medical risk. 'It makes diagnosis difficult - even doubling consultation time - and can give rise to serious misunderstandings and errors, for which the doctor will be held responsible

Research by the society shows a large increase in expats presenting with serious conditions at hospitals throughout the Spanish costas, but fewer than 10 per cent can communicate with staff, with almost a third relying on hand gestures and phrase books.

Jill Porter Smith, 75, who retired here from Cambridge 25 years ago, volunteers at Denia Hospital five days a week. 'Most of our clinics now have a sign over the door saying, "Non-Spanish speakers will not be seen without an interpreter," but with only a handful speaking fluent Spanish in a community of over 40,000, our volunteers are stretched to the limit. It's not unusual to deal with British people who have lived here over 20 years and complain about medical staff not speaking English. Because waiters and barmen speak English, they expect doctors to.

The society is now calling for extra resources to deal with the rising costs. Regional health authorities complain that providing drugs, health and social care for more than a million ageing Brits - and to a lesser extent, German and Dutch - is crippling, prompting the Spanish Health Minister, Elena Salgado, to demand an annual £40m from the UK government.

Gpe says London office demand ‘soft’

By Ed Hammond, Property Correspondent

The eurozone debt crisis is putting the brakes on London’s office rental market as fewer companies look to expand into new buildings in the city, according to a leading property developer.

Toby Courtauld, chief executive of Great Portland Estates, warned that the repercussions of the sovereign debt problems in Greece and Italy would affect rental values in the short term as tenants held back from signing new deals. “Demand from tenants is looking a bit softer than it was four months ago. But there is not a lot we can do about what is going on month to month and we are optimistic about the next three years,” said Mr Courtauld.

Until recently, the flood of capital from overseas investors pouring into the city’s prime commercial property stock had helped London-focused GPE weather the downturn better than some of its more nationally spread rivals.

Mr Courtauld said, however, that the jitters in the eurozone, which have further constrained the already insipid bank financing market, meant the development of new office space had slowed. “The supply of offices is one of the tightest we have seen. If we return to normal levels of demand – which are not a long way off – we will have a landlord’s market as people won’t be able to find the space to support their growth,” he added.

Mr Courtauld also said he did not expect to find the lettings needed to kick-start the company’s planned 100 Bishopsgate skyscraper in the City of London for at least another six months. GPE, which has bought a number of properties over the past 18 months, such as the ITN headquarters on Gray’s Inn Road, is building the tower in partnership with Brookfield, the Canadian developer.

However, the property market in the Square Mile has faltered because of the difficulties facing the financial sector.

During the six months to October, GPE experienced a 31 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £10.4m after its programme to redevelop and refurbish its London offices led to a rise in vacancies. The group said, however, that the income loss arose from taking back office space to improve, providing a platform for sustainable growth.

GPE posted earnings per share of 3.4p, down 24 per cent on the same period in 2010. The group paid a dividend of 3.2p a share, compared with 3.1p a year earlier. It had net debt of £630.5m ($1bn), including shares of joint ventures.

Mike Prew, a real estate analyst at Jefferies, said GPE had the right mix of size and agility to suit a property cycle “which seems set for greater volatility, making longer-term capital allocation decisions trickier”.

Italy verge of debt default triggered the global market turmoil

Italian bond yields, such as wild horse rapid rise, although the European Central Bank to intervene, but indicative of the 10 bond yields closed at 7.25%, compared jump up the day before about 50 basis points, again since the birth of the euro hit a new high. Ireland, Portugal and Greece are exceeded 7% in bond yields after forced to apply for international assistance, and three applications for assistance in the German bond yields and spreads averaged 534, while Italy and Germany the same day reached bonds spreads 552.

widely believed that 10 yields exceeded 7%, meaning that the Italian government bonds debt service pressure, debt levels are no longer sustainable. According to the Italian “Evening Post” reported that if bond yields continue to remain high, the Italian is likely to default.

Although the European Central Bank in the past few days continue to buy the Italian bond market to suppress the large yield, but this market has been unable to alleviate fears. European Commission responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said through a spokesman, on the day of the Italian record high yields worried, and worried about future market conditions deteriorate further.

Affected by the global financial markets plunge 9 daily. Among them, the Italian MIB index fell to 3.78%, the French CAC40 index fell 2.17%, London “ Financial Times ” 100 index fell 1.92 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 2.21%. Wall Street the Dow Jones index also fell 3.2 percent that day.