One of the inseparable faces of the history of the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote, the only public geriatric hospital in Lanzarote and a pioneer in the Canary Islands, is that of Domingo de Guzmán, who was its director from 1982 until he retired in 2022.
"We suspect that Lanzarote, instead of having two hospitals, will have one and that there is an office in Gran Canaria that has made this decision and it will harm us greatly," criticizes de Guzmán during his appearance this Tuesday morning on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero, where he expresses his concern about the closure of the Hospital Insular as a hospital center dedicated to the care of the elderly and dependent.
"Why does Lanzarote have to lose a hospital it appreciates?" questions the former medical director and one of those responsible for the Hospital Insular becoming a reference center for geriatric care. The center will become part of a wing of the Hospital Molina Orosa amidst criticism from healthcare workers due to the risk of losing quality in service.
"It's all very confusing, very non-transparent, and we are very, very worried," he confesses during his radio appearance.
"The Government of the Canary Islands has given us very little," de Guzmán continues. "We don't have major cultural centers, we don't have major museums, we don't have a convention center, but why do they want to take away a hospital [...] that has been in Lanzarote for 70 years and has proven that it is useful?" he adds.
The Platform of the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote, together with the Marea Blanca platform, has called for a popular mobilization on Saturday, June 20, to demand the continuity of the hospital center.
"They are considering a transfer of the Hospital Insular without a renovation project for the building, without a budget for that renovation, and without a deadline to return to the old hospital," adds the former director of the Insular, who suspects that the transfer of patients and employees to Molina Orosa "is a one-way street, with no return."
At the same time, the petition launched on Change.org to "save" the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote has already gathered more than 14,500 signatures. Despite these efforts, the Government of the Canary Islands still has no rehabilitation project in sight, which fuels the fear that the temporary transfer will become chronic.
"That transfer, which is presented as provisional to facilities that are also provisional, has every appearance of being definitive," warns the healthcare professional on the program Buenos días, Lanzarote.
In a press conference held last February by the insular secretary of Coalición Canaria, Pedro San Ginés, the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, and the director of the island's Health Area, Erasmo García, reported that the transfer of patients would take place this summer with the aim of emptying the Insular.
"Without counting" on expert voices
De Guzmán, now retired, and other healthcare professionals who work or have worked at the Hospital Insular have expressed their fear of losing a unique care system on the island. "Geriatrics is not just any specialty, not just anyone can understand the needs of frail elderly people or complex chronic patients," she adds.
At the same time, the former director of the Insular criticizes the lack of consensus and dialogue with the healthcare professionals specialized in Geriatrics at the Hospital Insular and with the center's management team. While pointing out that the master plan, which has not yet been presented to the affected employees, "seems like a dictated and commissioned report with certain characteristics."
"It is totally incredible that all these decisions are being made without counting on the corresponding teams, without the opinion of the experts," criticizes De Guzmán, who wonders why the money that will be invested in adapting the Emerging Diseases wing to house the Geriatrics service is not allocated to rehabilitating the Hospital Insular to correct "its most serious deficiencies" and create a rehabilitation project.
Add La Voz de Lanzarote as a preferred Google source.
Stay informed with the latest current news.
