Catalan health officials have ordered urgent checks at nine private hospitals after a review linked to a €610 million (about $710 million) takeover found 23 operating-theatre oxygen alarms with no record of a functional test. Seven theatres have been barred from scheduled operations until independent checks are finished, according to an order dated 16 October.
The alarms warn staff when a hospital’s usual oxygen supply is interrupted and a reserve source is needed. The regional health department said it had found no evidence that oxygen supplies failed or that patients were harmed, but called the missing test records a serious safety concern.
A review triggered by the deal
The findings emerged as Bravena Clínicas prepared to buy Solmira Salud, a private hospital group with sites across Catalonia. A technical review commissioned for the transaction compared records from both companies; a 37-page summary was later attached to the regional department’s inspection order.
The review sampled 31 maintenance work orders from 2024 and 2025. Twenty-three were marked complete, but the underlying service notes described visual inspections or routine servicing and contained no record that the alarm had been functionally checked. The affected equipment was spread across nine hospitals, including sites in Girona, Tarragona and the outskirts of Barcelona.
Carmen Solli, a former biomedical engineer who worked at one of the hospitals, said staff depended on the alarm to alert them to a change in supply. “The alarm is the warning, not the oxygen itself. If it does not sound, staff may not know the reserve supply has taken over.”
The alarm is the warning, not the oxygen itself. If it does not sound, staff may not know the reserve supply has taken over.
Carmen Solli, former biomedical engineer
Solli said the inspection records she saw during her employment were treated as proof that checks had been done, even when the paperwork did not describe what had been tested. She no longer works for either company. The health department said it was checking whether earlier certifications met regional requirements.
Seven theatres paused
The order requires the nine hospitals to complete fresh tests within 10 days and send the results to inspectors. Seven theatres must remain closed to planned procedures until they pass; emergency care at the hospitals continues. The department said patients whose operations were postponed had been contacted and offered new dates.
Bravena spokeswoman Dana Fjeld said the group had suspended planned operations in the affected theatres and hired an external technical team to inspect the systems. “We are treating every gap in the records as a check that must be repeated,” she said, adding that the buyer had notified the health department as soon as the review identified discrepancies.
Elizabeth Russell, a biomedical safety researcher at a public university in Barcelona, said the absence of a test record did not prove that an alarm would fail, but it prevented hospitals from demonstrating that it would work when needed. She said the regulator should examine whether the same maintenance contractors had certified other equipment using similar paperwork.
The takeover remains subject to approval by Spain’s competition regulator, and the companies have not said whether the findings will change the deal’s price or timetable. Catalan inspectors are expected to publish a summary of their follow-up checks after the 10-day deadline; the health department said it would consider penalties if hospitals cannot verify the alarms’ operation.
