"Angry". That's how some citizens who were waiting to be seen in the Emergency Room of the Molina Orosa Hospital were. And, according to reports, in some cases the wait was delayed up to seven hours. "It's outrageous," said two women, while the center's staff said "it's normal."
Pepi broke her arm on April 6 and this Wednesday she went to the Emergency Room because it "hurt a lot." "And I've been here since 12 in the morning," she complained at around six in the afternoon. Finally, she was seen "an hour later," she says. "The doctor came out yelling, shouting at me, saying that this was not an emergency, that there had been heart attacks". "When they charge them 200 euros for these things you'll see that they don't come," she says he told her.
"It was my doctor who told me to go to the Emergency Room," explains Pepi, who lives in Tinajo. "And in Tinajo there is an outpatient clinic but for emergencies, all of us from the towns of La Santa, El Cuchillo, La Vegueta and Tinajo, have to come to Arrecife," she points out.
"We've only been to the assistant and that's it," said another man, who was sent to the Emergency Room by his work's insurance company, after a splinter got into his eye and who, after five hours of waiting, had still not been seen. "What they say is that there are no resources, that it is not saturated, that there are many people and that there is no staff," said this citizen. "But they are not calling anyone," protested this man, who finally filed a complaint. "It's the only option they've given me," he said.
"Politicians do nothing, they only go to pocket the money"
Teresa, on the other hand, was not even seen, because she left tired of waiting so long. "I came at two in the afternoon with a headache and neck pain that I can't stand, but you leave here worse. And they don't give us any explanation, that's just the way it is," she said at around six in the afternoon, when she was still waiting to be seen.
"Social Security is getting worse and worse and I'm ashamed to be from here. Fuerteventura is above us. Politicians do nothing, they only go to pocket the money," criticized Teresa, who says that an hour later she decided to leave the hospital. "And may God will it," she says.
The response from the Hospital staff: "It's normal"
"It's normal," workers at the Molina Orosa Hospital simply replied, after La Voz went to the center this Tuesday, after receiving calls from citizens complaining that they had been waiting for hours to be seen.
"The only thing was that there was a lady who rebelled and encouraged the others," said the staff, also complaining of having received "insults" from some patients.
However, in previous days, other citizens had already conveyed complaints to La Voz about the long waits in the Emergency Room of the Molina Orosa Hospital.