The alliance of
Recoletas Red Hospitalaria, Arquimea, Lagben and GTT
, on the one hand, and
Eurofins Megalab
, on the other, have won the competition to
install temporary clinics
in which to carry out Covid-19 detection tests in 15 airports in the Aena network.
These are the ones with the highest international traffic and the criterion for the selection of these companies has been the
discount on the price of the tests
, compared to reference prices in the market, experience and technical capacity.
The specifications stated that the prices could not exceed the cost of the tests in recognized establishments on the street.
According to the offers presented, the PCR will cost between 58 and 70 euros;
the antigen test will have a price of 24.45 to 29.17 euros, and the serological tests will start from 29.34 euros and go up to 35. The aim is to put a laboratory as close as possible to the traveler, in this case at the gate, and tests at affordable prices.
The Recoletas group will be in
Madrid-Barajas, Seville and Malaga-Costa del Sol
, which make up the Central South package of a total of the four lots into which the contest had been divided.
And Eurofins Megalab targets the Northeast, Balearic and Canary Islands lots.
In the latter, the airports of Barcelona-El Prat, Bilbao, Valencia and Alicante are framed in the Northeast package;
Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, in the Balearic Islands, and Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Palma in the group of Canarian airports.
The contract awarded by Aena, which rents the space for these new facilities, has a term of
six months
and is extendable until December 31.
At the time of the tender, the airport manager argued that its intention is to promote traffic within what is allowed.
It is about making it easier for travelers who need a test to return to their places of origin to avoid confinement or quarantines when returning from Spain.
The clinics have not been designed, on the other hand, to obtain the mandatory test to enter Spain, which must be carried out at origin.
Installed in the terminals or departure areas, these centers will
not allow access by people without the boarding pass
.
Healthcare companies will carry out the usual PCR, rapid antibody tests, antigen tests, clinical analyzes and high-performance serologies (ECLIA, CLIA and ELISA), as stated in the specifications.
All of them will be tests approved by Health.
One of the requirements to compete was to have an authorized clinical analysis laboratory and qualified personnel to carry out the tests and prepare the reports.
The capacity of these laboratories must be a minimum of 128 daily tests and
the maximum time to issue the results will not exceed 12 hours
.
Among the obligations of these temporary clinics is the availability of a phone number and a website to facilitate test reservations.
Before conducting the tests, the time traveler must also be informed to obtain the result.
Who is who?
Among the winning companies of the Madrid-Barajas lot, the
Recoletas
group stands out
, especially strong in Castilla y León, where it has hospitals in Burgos, Valladolid, Palencia and Zamora.
Its foundation dates back to May 1989 and its annual income is around 85 million.
His partner
Arquimea
emerged in 2004 as a
spin-off
of projects carried out by the founder, Diego Fernández, at the Carlos III University.
Today it is part of the COVID-19 Alliance, a consortium that includes approved diagnostic laboratories.
Eurofins Megalab
, meanwhile, is one of the largest clinical analysis firms in the country.
With a presence in 70 Spanish hospitals, its laboratory performs more than 50 million tests a year.
Eurofins, in fact, is one of the world leaders in clinical analysis, with 45,000 employees in a network of 800 laboratories in 47 countries.
Aena has already resorted to private medical companies
for the health control of travelers from abroad.
In that case, the service is being provided by Quirón and Interserve, which complement the Foreign Health personnel.
The decision to carry out tests at the terminals has already been taken at
Dublin
airport
or at London's
Heathrow and Luton
, the latter managed by Aena itself.
Lufthansa has also developed this type of experience in German airports, assuming the costs of the tests.