The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will host on Thursday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m., the round table titled Mass tourism. Impact on Canary Islands healthcare, in which Vanesa Frahija, Beatriz González, Cecilia López, and María de los Ángeles Sabalich will participate. The journalist Natalia G. Vargas, who has also coordinated the activity, will be the moderator. The event will take place in the Sala José Saramago (La Plazuela, Arrecife) and will be broadcast live on the FCM's website and YouTube channel. Admission is free until full capacity is reached.
This round table, dedicated to the healthcare situation in the Canary Islands, will be the first in a series of meetings focused on the impact of mass tourism on essential sectors of the archipelago. Experiences and reflections will be shared on how the current mass tourism model affects one of the basic pillars of society: the healthcare system. The testimonies of the speakers, from different fields related to health, will provide firsthand knowledge of different realities, ranging from the daily lives of Emergency professionals in Lanzarote to the personal experience of a family member who accompanied her mother for 22 days in the emergency room of a hospital in Tenerife.
The colloquium will also allow for an analysis of the capacity of the public healthcare system of the Canary Islands to respond to the needs of the population in a context of increasing tourist pressure, as well as to address the difficulties and challenges faced by its professionals. Likewise, proposals related to the defense of the labor and social rights and interests of the healthcare sector will be put forward, and there will be a reflection on the role of private healthcare in the face of the difficulties and challenges confronting the public system.
The participants in the round table
Vanesa Frahija is the general secretary of Comisiones Obreras in the Canary Islands. She began her work as a union representative in 2003. In 2014, she assumed the General Secretariat of the Union of Commerce and Hospitality in Lanzarote and, between 2016 and 2025, held the General Secretariat of Comisiones Obreras in Lanzarote, expanding her scope of representation to all labor sectors. In addition to the General Secretariat of CCOO in the Canary Islands, she is also a counselor of the Economic and Social Council of the Canary Islands and the Canarian Council of Labor Relations; an advisory member of the President of the Government of the Canary Islands and a member of the Social Concertation Table.
Beatriz González is a professor of Economics at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and a researcher in Health Economics. She is an Honorary Member of the Health Economics Association, a trustee of the Ernest Lluch Foundation, and a corresponding academic of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Galicia. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Spanish Society of Health Directors and the Scientific Cabinet of the Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote, among other organizations. She has received the Cross of the Order of Civil Merit for Health and has been named Adoptive Daughter of the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the island of Gran Canaria.
Cecilia López holds a degree in Theology and is a professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Personal and Professional Training and Guidance. She currently works as a teacher in the Community of Madrid. For years, she has accompanied people in processes of special vulnerability and life transitions. The experience of caring for her mother during her illness reinforced her desire to reinvent herself and continue to deepen her work in accompanying people at the end of life and in other personal transformation processes.
María A. Sabalich is a specialist in Family and Community Medicine and a specialist in Emergency Medicine, with over 15 years of clinical experience. She currently coordinates the Emergency Department of the Dr. José Molina Orosa University Hospital. She holds a master's degree in Hospital and Health Services Management, is an accredited instructor in ITLS and clinical simulation. She combines clinical activity with clinical management and teaching, with a special interest in patient safety, clinical simulation, and continuous improvement of care quality.
Natalia G. Vargas is a journalist specializing in human rights and migration. She holds a master's degree in Human Rights, Democracy, and Globalization and, since 2019, has been working at Canarias Ahora, a regional newspaper associated with elDiario.es. She has covered, among other events, the 2020 migratory crisis in the Canary Islands, the eruption of the La Palma volcano, and mobilizations in defense of the territory and for a change in the economic model in the Canary Islands. She has collaborated with the Pulitzer Center on investigations into the violation of rights of migrant minors in the Canary Islands and urban development projects in protected areas of the Archipelago. She has also worked at La Opinión de Tenerife and as an independent journalist in Senegal, Gambia, and Cape Verde.
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