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President of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, Regional Minister of Health, Antonio Sanz, and Mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, in the hybrid operating theatre of the new complex. Josele Infrastructure President of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, marks inauguration of Costa del Sol hospital's long-awaited extensionThe president acknowledges that the centre, still awaiting permission to open the radiotherapy and nuclear medicine services, was "at the limit of its capacity"
Marbella
Thursday, 5 March 2026, 15:47
On 3 March 2025, the extension of the Costa del Sol University Hospital opened its doors, and exactly one year later it was formally inaugurated by Junta de Andalucía president Juanma Moreno. The expansion directly benefits the 460,000 Málaga residents who rely on the hospital, and also eases pressure on the Virgen de la Victoria hospital in the city, which had been absorbing patients from the health district -particularly in oncology - due to the previous lack of facilities in Marbella.
"The hospital was at the limit of its capacity and lacked fundamental medical specialities," said the Andalusian president, who described the situation in which Malaga's healthcare system found itself as "dramatic" in the face of an "alarming investment deficit" that placed Malaga as the province with the fewest beds per inhabitant (161 per 100,000 residents, when the average was 236).
Juanma Moreno's words served not only to explain the importance of the investment, but also why this extension has been progressively opened. It comprises two new buildings constructed to complement the main one, adding 40,000 square metres and bringing the hospital's total surface area to 90,000 square metres. The administrative building, operational since 2023, has freed up space in the original building to expand the emergency department, laboratory and pharmacy. The new hospital block houses outpatient consultations, a medical and oncohaematology day hospital, a surgical area with 16 operating theatres - one of them hybrid - plus assisted reproduction, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine units. The latter have not yet come into service, pending authorisation from the Nuclear Safety Council and completion of staff training.
Major investment
The project for the extension of the hospital was approved in 2007, the works started the following year and were halted in 2010, as were those of the Estepona and Guadalhorce hospitals, and were not reactivated until 2011. The work, financed entirely with 93 million euros from the European REACT EU funds distributed by the Spanish Government among the Autonomous Communities, and the equipment, which includes "state-of-the-art" equipment, has involved an investment of more than 100 million euros, as well as the hiring of 276 professionals, at a cost of 14 million euros in human resources.
"The investment we have made in this hospital is not an isolated or one-off event", but "responds to a very intense and unprecedented comprehensive 'Plan Renoveve' that has allowed us, in just seven years, to totally or partially improve 100% of the Malaga health network," he said. Moreno put the amount injected into the province's healthcare system at around 360 million euros to alleviate "the very serious deficit it suffered during entire legislatures" and pointed out that the amount allocated this year is 91 million, 20 million more than in 2025. "The Andalusian government's commitment to Andalusian healthcare in general, and to Malaga's in particular, is as resounding as it is unquestionable. Never before has an autonomous government invested so much in strengthening and modernising the main pillar of the Welfare State. And we will continue to do so, with the aim of making public health care the pride of Andalusians," concluded Moreno.