"Those photos are outrageous. What is happening is outrageous." The words are from the councilor delegate of La Graciosa, Alicia Páez, and the images she refers to (and to which La Voz has had access), show a resident of La Graciosa being transferred in a company truck, as there is no ambulance available on the eighth island.
This episode took place last Thursday, when a young man from Graciosa suffered an accident and needed medical assistance. Although 112 was called, they could not get an ambulance, so he had to be transferred to the La Graciosa Health Center with the first thing they found available.
In addition, his case is not the only one. According to Alicia Páez, in a few days they have already experienced two other similar cases, with tourists who needed medical assistance and had to be transferred in private cars. Therefore, although the problem is not new, these three episodes in a few days have revived the outrage in La Graciosa, which demands to have an ambulance service, like the rest of the islands.
"They have never hired anyone"
"Since I arrived in office, I learned that the residents of Graciosa only have Emerlan volunteers, who carry out the evacuations if they can and if they are on the island," says the councilor delegate. And, according to her, the Canarian Health Service "has never hired anyone on this island to guarantee this service."
Thus, although there are usually Emerlan volunteers in La Graciosa, there is no agreement signed with the NGO, so they are not obliged to have a permanent presence either. And precisely in these last emergencies, they have not been able to be located. "Three of them were in Lanzarote for personal reasons," explains Alicia Páez, referring to the episode experienced last Thursday.
"What cannot be is that it is not guaranteed, as in any other Canary Island, to have this service," insists Páez, who stresses that this service is necessary both for residents and for tourists who visit La Graciosa. "Right now we are 3,000 people here!" she emphasizes, insisting that what is happening is "shameful and outrageous."
The City Council will pay two members of Emerlan
The councilor delegate has explained that she has already transferred this issue to the Canarian Health Service and 112, but they have not received a response. Even, both she and the mayor, Oswaldo Betancort, held a meeting two years ago with the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, but "to date nothing has been done."
Faced with this situation, as Páez announced on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, the City Council has decided to temporarily assume the payment to two members of Emerlan, to guarantee their presence on the island and their availability in the event of any emergency. "At least until the Canarian Health Service finds a solution, which has to be immediate," said Páez.
Fortunately, none of the episodes recorded in recent days has been extremely serious, but on any other island those patients would have been transferred by ambulance, and not in private vehicles or in a construction truck.