Receiving complex treatment, a transfusion, or specialized care without leaving home is a daily reality for hundreds of patients in Lanzarote thanks to the team of the Home Hospitalization (HADO) and Palliative Care service of the island's Health Services Management, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands.
This service, with a multidisciplinary team made up of ten doctors and eleven nurses and a fleet of five vehicles, allowed for the care of more than 500 patients with complex or advanced diseases at their homes and family environment last year, without foregoing specialized hospital care, thus consolidating itself as a resource that avoids hospital admissions and improves quality of life.
Home healthcare is provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays, which guarantees continuity of care and a rapid response to any clinical incident.
The humanization of care
The Home Hospitalization (HADO) unit has two doctors and two nurses, while the Palliative Care area is composed of eight doctors and nine nurses. The professionals are distributed into three care teams that cover all the towns in the north, center, and south of the island, in addition to a consultation team and a physician responsible for hospital care. Likewise, an on-call team guarantees continuous care for 24 hours and urgent attention when necessary.
Each day, the teams carry out scheduled home visits, attend to incidents that arise in each area, and offer close and personalized follow-up to patients with a commitment to humanization. This allows each professional to monitor the evolution of their patients and maintain permanent contact with their families, an aspect especially valued by those receiving this care.
Comprehensive care for patients with advanced diseases
The team also offers high-complexity services, such as the administration of blood product transfusions or subcutaneous chemotherapy treatments at home, avoiding unnecessary travel and allowing the patient to remain in their usual environment.
The head of the Home Hospitalization and Palliative Care Service, Gema Rodríguez, points out that "our team's goal is not only to treat the illness, but to care for the person. Being able to attend to a patient in their home, accompanied by their family and in an environment that provides them with peace of mind, improves their quality of life and humanizes care without losing the level of specialization we offer in the hospital at any time."
On the other hand, she highlights that "the constant trust that patients and their families place in the team's professionals is the best recognition of our daily work."
Greater response capacity and more consultations
The healthcare activity recorded in recent years reflects significant growth in both teams. In Home Hospitalization, the number of admissions has gone from 107 patients in 2022 to 208 in 2025, representing an increase of almost 95%. In the same period, discharges also practically doubled, going from 101 to 206. Each of the home care teams attends to between seven and ten patients daily, in addition to emergencies that arise in their area of reference.
For its part, the Palliative Care team attended to 303 patients during 2025, 120 with oncological diseases, 163 with non-oncological chronic pathologies, and patients with advanced neurodegenerative diseases. Each month, these teams follow up on between 95 and 100 people, providing medical and nursing care both at home and, when necessary, in the hospital setting.
Activity in consultations also reflects the growing demand for this service and its capacity to respond to the needs of its patients. Between 2022 and 2025, first consultations, follow-up consultations, and telephone consultations grew by more than 32%, from 913 to 1208 attended last year.
Coordination, continuity of care, and teaching
In addition to direct patient care, the HADO service and the Palliative Care service maintain close coordination with Primary Care and with the rest of the services of the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital and the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote, promoting integrated care and continuity of care.
The specialized training of professionals in these specific areas of medicine and the care work they carry out is complemented by an important teaching activity. Each year they host the training of 19 internal resident doctors (MIR), 10 rotating specialists from all over the country, and students from the Master's in Palliative Care, thus contributing to the training of new professionals.
The manager of the Health Services of Lanzarote, Pablo Eguia, highlights the role played by the Home Hospitalization and Palliative Care teams as an essential resource for public healthcare on the island, "their care model allows people with complex pathologies or advanced diseases to receive specialized and close attention in the environment where they wish to remain, placing the humanization of care at the center of clinical practice".
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