The Hospital Marina Baixa, the public hospital for the whole comarca, is in La Vila Joiosa itself, on Avinguda Alcalde Jaume Botella Mayor, with a TRAM stop of its own, Hospital Vila. Patients from all over the Marina Baixa are treated there, so people from Benidorm, Finestrat, Orxeta, Sella and Relleu are sent home from La Vila too, sometimes late in the evening, sometimes with no idea where their keys went when the ambulance came.
This guide is for that moment: before you leave the ward, not after you reach the door.
First, find out where the keys went
When someone is taken to hospital in a hurry, the keys usually end up in one of four places:
- In a bag of belongings that travelled with you. Ask the ward staff whether there is a bag in your name, including anything kept at the emergency department when you arrived.
- With whoever closed the house. A neighbour, a relative, or the emergency services if they had to get in to reach you. Ask the family member who came with you, or ring the neighbour.
- Still in the house, if the door was simply pulled shut behind you.
- In the door, on the outside, if somebody locked up and forgot them. Worth asking a neighbour to look.
If the emergency services had to force the door to reach you, it may already have been secured by somebody else, or it may be standing damaged. Ask before you set off, so you are not surprised.
Then, before you leave
- Charge your phone if you can, or borrow one: you will need it at the door.
- Have something with your address on it. A locksmith has to see proof that you live there before opening the door. An identity document with the address is best; your discharge papers show your name, and a neighbour who knows you can vouch for you.
- Do not go home alone if you are not steady on your feet. Waiting outside on a step is the worst part of the evening. If someone can collect you, let them wait with you.
Saying you are just out of hospital
Say that you have just been discharged and, if it matters, that you cannot stand for long or need to sit down. Say where you are: still at the hospital, on the TRAM, or already at the door. If you are going home to one of the villages up the valley, say so too; the drive there is longer, and the guide to a lockout up the Amadorio valley explains what to expect.
If you are calling on behalf of a parent who has just been sent home, it helps to read an elderly parent living alone in the old town: most of it applies wherever they live.
So it does not happen twice
A key left with a trusted neighbour, or a locked key safe fixed by the door with the code shared with family, turns this whole evening into a phone call. Neither needs a locksmith to set up. And if the keys turn out to be lost for good rather than mislaid, change the cylinder once you are home and rested.
For the call itself, the emergency locksmith service explains what happens after you ring.