The psychologist Silvia Camino warns of the risk of losing the Insular Hospital: "How is it possible?"

The clinical psychologist specializing in Gerontology, Silvia Camino, who began working at the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote 41 years ago, has launched a video on social media denouncing the lack of political will of the Government of the Canary Islands to maintain the island's Geriatrics service in the current building.

"How is it possible that a geriatrics service of this quality is being dismantled?", questions this healthcare professional, who explains that after learning about the reality of other socio-health centers, where old methods are still used, this space in Lanzarote stands out as a different model.

"People want to go to the Hospital Insular, the elderly who now have an acute pathology, want to go there and want to rehabilitate there because there is comprehensive care," she continues, "because there is comprehensive care, centered on the person, with human and professional quality." At the same time, she warns that with the change of building "that is over."

Camino points out that rehabilitation could be carried out without moving all patients to another building and explains that "this is not the first experience of reconstructing a center where users remain in that center and the works are adapted and patients adapt until the center is rebuilt."

In this regard, she questions how it is possible that the Government of the Canary Islands does not have a budget to maintain this unique Geriatrics service in the Canary Islands, and with excellence in this specialty? Sincerely, I don't understand it and it breaks my heart."

From asylum center to geriatric care space

"In '85, life gifted me the opportunity to start working at the Hospital Insular," begins the healthcare professional in the video. During a review of these decades as a healthcare professional in this medical facility, Camino explains that at first the center functioned as an asylum, a space that brought together all kinds of pathologies and realities, until it became a care space for the elderly or dependent.

"We focused on learning, learning about Geriatrics, but above all, our focus was on dignifying the lives of the people who lived there," indicates Camino, who points out that the professionals' stance, led by Dr. Domingo Guzmán, consisted of "humanizing care" and "changing the way the elderly were treated."

With that work, a multidisciplinary team was created that "took care of all the needs of the elderly, but from another place, in another way". The clinical psychologist recalls that the staff of geriatricians was expanded, while nurses and auxiliaries specialized in geriatrics. In addition, a complete rehabilitation team was created, made up of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, etc. 

Along with these services, Camino recalls that an activities coordinator was made available to long-term patients to prevent them from becoming "isolated in their rooms". However, she explains that with the change of facilities to the building adjacent to the Hospital Doctor José Molina Orosa, patients will indeed experience isolation in their rooms. "They are going to live in the room, eat alone with their roommate, and that's it," she emphasizes.