If you have ever had to arrange transport for a hospital appointment, you will know that getting there can sometimes be almost as stressful as the appointment itself. Now imagine being referred for specialist treatment in another country and suddenly being told that the taxi taking you there may no longer be covered. That was the concern facing Gibraltar patients referred to hospitals in Spain after a Gibraltar Health Authority notice appeared to say that taxi journeys for these appointments would no longer be paid for.

For people who depend on the service because of their medical needs, it raised an obvious question: how are they supposed to get to hospital? There is now an answer. Gibraltar’s Health Minister, Gemma Arias-Vasquez, has confirmed that taxis will remain available for patients who need them, putting an end to fears that transport for medical referrals to Spain was being withdrawn.

Gibraltar patients can still get taxis to Spain

The clarification followed a notice from the Gibraltar Health Authority stating that taxis for tertiary appointments in Spain would no longer be paid for, with no petrol allowance available either. The wording caused concern among patients covered by Gibraltar’s Sponsored Patients system, particularly those who have to travel to Spain because the specialist treatment they require is not available in Gibraltar.

However, Arias-Vasquez said the notice had not been properly communicated to her ministry and did not accurately reflect the government’s position. Patients who genuinely require a taxi to attend their referral appointment will continue to have access to one. The change is instead intended to address situations where patients do not actually require a taxi for their journey. In other words, the transport provision is not being scrapped, but taxis will not necessarily be provided automatically to every patient travelling for treatment.

Why patients are sent to hospitals in Spain

Gibraltar has a small healthcare system and does not provide every type of specialist treatment locally. Patients can therefore be referred to medical centres outside the territory when the required care is unavailable through the Gibraltar Health Authority. The GHA’s Sponsored Patients Department manages these arrangements for patients requiring specialist treatment that cannot be provided in Gibraltar. Referrals are considered through the Tertiary Referral Board before treatment is authorised.

For some of those patients, hospitals in Spain are the most practical option because of their proximity. The arrangements can involve treatment in Spanish hospitals while the patient’s care remains funded and managed through Gibraltar’s healthcare system. That makes transport an important part of the arrangement, particularly for anyone whose medical condition means they cannot reasonably make the journey independently.

Confusion over the taxi notice

The original notice appears to have created the impression that patients would have to arrange and pay for their own journeys to Spain, regardless of their circumstances. That is not the position now being given by the Gibraltar Government. The Health Minister has made clear that anyone who needs transport to attend a specialist referral in Spain should not be left without it. The aim is to ensure that taxis are available where they are genuinely required, rather than treating every referral as automatically requiring one.

The clarification is particularly important for patients who may already be dealing with serious or long-term health problems. A journey across the border can involve additional planning, and removing an established transport arrangement could have created another practical obstacle between a patient and the treatment they had been referred to receive.

For now, those fears have been put to rest. Gibraltar is not ending its taxi provision for patients referred to hospitals in Spain, although the circumstances in which a taxi is provided are being tightened so that the service is used when it is actually needed. The GHA is expected to provide clearer information to patients about the arrangements, following the confusion caused by the original notice.

If you’re paying hundreds or even thousands of euros every month just to keep a roof over your head, the idea of renting a house for €20 a month probably sounds almost impossible. Yet in one small town in Sevilla province, that is the reality for residents who have lived in municipal homes for decades, while a new batch of properties is about to be offered at the same extraordinary price.

Welcome to Marinaleda, a town of around 2,600 people where the local housing system is very different from the private property market found across much of Spain. The municipality is now finishing 24 new social homes, which are expected to be rented to residents for between €15 and €20 a month.

The €20-a-month homes in Sevilla

The new houses are being built in two groups, with 10 semi-detached homes in one development and 14 in another. They are one- or two-storey houses rather than apartment blocks, following the type of housing traditionally used in Marinaleda. The properties will remain in municipal ownership, meaning residents cannot simply buy them and put them on the open market.

When a family leaves, the home can be allocated to another person who needs it. Applicants must also have been registered as residents of Marinaleda for at least two years, with their individual circumstances taken into account when homes are allocated. But the €15–€20 rent is not the result of someone finding a way to make normal private housing suddenly cost almost nothing. Marinaleda’s system has been built around public land, municipal control and, in some cases, the future residents helping to build their own homes.

Residents helped build their own houses

One of the clearest examples is Pilar Prieto, who has lived in her Marinaleda home since 1993. She and her family helped build the property despite having no previous experience in construction. Future residents worked as labourers during the building process, with the hours they contributed being taken into account when the final cost was calculated.

Pilar says she and her husband helped with jobs including digging foundations before eventually moving into the finished house with their young son. She has paid less than €20 a month ever since. The municipality’s housing model has been operating for decades. According to its own account, public land is made available to self-builders, while materials, technical support and construction assistance have been provided through agreements and public employment programmes. More than 350 homes have been built using the system.

A housing market without private speculation

Marinaleda’s approach is based on keeping housing outside the normal property market. The municipality says land was acquired and municipalised so that it could be used for housing rather than being left open to private speculation. That principle continues with the latest development.

The new homes will remain under municipal control, with the rent adjusted to residents’ circumstances rather than being set according to what a private landlord could charge. Mayor Sergio Gómez, who is also a history teacher, describes the system as management rather than a miracle. He also lives in a municipal home and pays rent to the Ayuntamiento like other residents.

Could the model continue?

The next 24 homes are already nearing completion, but the municipality wants to continue building more affordable housing. Gómez says Marinaleda needs support from the Junta de Andalucía to do so. The national Housing Plan for 2026–2030 includes €7 billion for Spain’s autonomous communities, with at least 40 per cent intended for the construction or acquisition of housing.

Andalucía has been allocated €718.2 million in state funding over the five-year period, alongside a minimum regional contribution of €478.8 million, according to figures cited by the mayor. For anyone struggling to find an affordable home elsewhere in Spain, Marinaleda’s figures are striking. While private rents continue to put pressure on household budgets, residents of this small Sevillian town can still find a municipal house for no more than €20 a month, with some families having stayed in their homes for more than three decades.

Most of us understand that people working in laboratories have to be extremely meticulous in their work. A mistake can mean an incorrect result or a bad outcome, but there are some laboratories where the consequences of an accident can be far more serious. Take Wuhan, for example, nothing good came of that, did it?

Now, a laboratory worker in Russia has died after reportedly breaking a tube containing plague bacteria, while almost 200 people have been placed under observation. The incident has raised concerns over possible exposure to pneumonic plague, one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, after the worker reportedly became seriously ill days after the accident.

Laboratory worker dies after reported plague exposure

The woman, identified by Russian media as 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, a specialist facility dealing with dangerous infectious diseases. According to reports, Shipilova accidentally broke a test tube containing Yersinia pestis, the bacterium responsible for plague, while working at the institute on September 25.

She reportedly became ill several days later and was admitted to hospital on September 29. Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died in intensive care on October 2. The reported connection between the broken tube and her subsequent illness has prompted the precautionary measures now being taken around the region.

Almost 200 people placed under observation

Around 197 people who may have come into contact with Shipilova have reportedly been placed under medical observation. More than 100 were said to be undergoing monitoring in hospital, while a facility in Shelekhov was also placed under quarantine measures. The group includes people who may have had contact with the woman before she became seriously ill, with medical teams watching for any signs of infection. There has been no reported wider outbreak among those being monitored.

Why pneumonic plague is particularly dangerous

Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterium behind the Black Death that devastated Europe during the Middle Ages. Although it is often associated with medieval history, plague still exists today, with human cases continuing to occur in parts of the world where the bacteria circulate naturally among animals and fleas. There are three main forms of the disease. Bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes, septicaemic plague infects the bloodstream, while pneumonic plague affects the lungs.

The latter is particularly serious because it can spread between people through respiratory droplets. Without prompt treatment, it can become fatal very quickly. Modern antibiotics can successfully treat plague when it is diagnosed early, making rapid identification and monitoring of possible contacts particularly important.

Questions remain over the source of the infection

The broken test tube has become the central detail surrounding the case, although reports have raised questions about whether this was definitely how Shipilova became infected. Some reports have linked her illness directly to the laboratory accident involving the plague bacteria. Other accounts say she had returned from a work trip to Buryatia before becoming ill, leaving questions over where the exposure actually occurred.

Russian health authorities have disputed the claim that plague was confirmed as the cause of death, describing the illness as pneumonia of undetermined origin and saying subsequent testing did not detect microorganisms connected with her professional work. However, numerous Russian and international news reports have continued to describe the death as a suspected case of pneumonic plague following the laboratory incident.

Almost 200 people remain under watch

For the people placed under observation, the priority is identifying any signs of illness as quickly as possible. The precaution is particularly important because pneumonic plague can be transmitted through respiratory droplets if an infected person develops the contagious form of the disease. At present, there is no indication that the incident has developed into a wider outbreak.

The coming days should reveal whether any of the people being monitored develop symptoms and whether investigators can establish a definitive link between the broken laboratory tube and Shipilova’s death. For now, the case remains focused on the Irkutsk institute and the 197 people reportedly placed under observation, as Russian authorities work to determine exactly what happened inside the laboratory and whether anyone else was exposed.