Hospitals in the Alicante province are now the fastest in the country when it comes to discharging their patients.

The average hospital stay is now 5.43 days, the lowest figure in the last decade, compared to and average of 6.66 days nationwide. In the case of the Valencia Province the average stay is 5.51 days and in Castellón it is 6.05 days.

Health officials consider this to be a positive indicator showing that there has been a low rate of complications with fewer adverse effects.

This practice also helps to further the patient’s recovery  in their home environment as well as reducing income and health expenditure.

Amongst the other information to be drawn from the most recent hospital study issued by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) the report also shows that the largest number of hospital stays in the country is due to diseases of the circulatory or the cardiovascular system.

With regard to the longest admissions figures show that average hospital stays for mental disorders due to drug and alcohol consumption are 18.75 days, bacterial pathologies 14.60 and HIV infections 13.44 days. By contrast, childbirth care only involves three days of admission.

A spokesman at Alicante Hospital said that the main factor influencing these good results is less aggressive surgical interventions as a result of which the recovery time of the patient is shorter.