The Deputy Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands and Director of the Canarian Health Service (SCS), Carlos Díaz, visited this Thursday the new leaded operating room that has been launched by the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital, a center attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands. This is a surgical room specially designed for complex procedures that require the use of radiological imaging equipment.
The new operating room is the third of these characteristics to be opened in the hospital center and responds to the need to have infrastructures adapted for more complex procedures, especially for interventions in Traumatology, Vascular Surgery, Urology and the Pain Unit, where the use of X-ray guided techniques is frequent.
The space, with a total area of 37 square meters, has been remodeled with an investment of 320,000 euros. The improvement project has included lead coating of the surfaces, renovation of the lighting, electricity and medical gas systems. In addition, state-of-the-art equipment has been incorporated, such as surgical lamps with high-performance cameras and a latest generation technical panel.
This panel makes it possible to visualize radiological images, allows access to patient history, as well as record and view operations remotely in real time, so that a specialist from another hospital can provide support, data or indications in complex procedures. On the other hand, the new panel is very useful for the training activity of resident internal doctors and nurses of the Lanzarote Health Management.
The leaded operating room will also optimize surgical response times and schedule a greater number of interventions that require these needs
The Molina Orosa currently has nine active operating rooms, with great technological equipment: surgery and anesthesia columns anchored and suspended from the ceiling, laparoscopy and arthroscopy towers, monitors and advanced technical panels that improve patient safety and the work of professionals.
Record activity in surgery
The Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital performed the highest number of surgical interventions in its history in 2024, surpassing those registered in previous years to reach a total of 11,699 operations. Thus, services such as Ophthalmology carried out 2,615 interventions, General Surgery 2,096 and the Traumatology team more than 1,100.
This volume of activity has been accompanied by significant improvements in waiting times. Thanks to the reorganization of resources and the effort of the professional teams, the average surgical delay has been reduced from 92 to 55 days in the Lanzarote hospital.
Modernization and expansion of health infrastructures
The director of the SCS, Carlos Díaz, pointed out during the visit that this improvement “is part of the process of modernization and expansion of health infrastructures, with the aim of continuing to reduce waiting lists, shorten intervention times and offer a quality service to patients”.
For his part, the Manager of Health Services of Lanzarote, Pablo Eguia, pointed out that the new surgical room "reinforces the hospital's resolution capacity and reflects the sustained effort to guarantee a more agile, safe and effective surgical care for the population of the island".
It should be remembered that the Molina Orosa Hospital plans to install a robotic surgery equipment in the coming months, after tendering its contracting last April.
During the day, Carlos Díaz held a meeting with the management team of the Management and with part of the drafting team of the SCS Master Plan. In addition, he supervised the works of the new external consultation rooms that are being carried out on the ground floor of the Molina Orosa.
