The manager of Sanitary Services of Lanzarote, José Luis Aparicio, has indicated that Lanzarote does not suffer any type of comparative grievance regarding the Emergency Services with respect to Fuerteventura or other islands, and that these statements come from "misinformation" and "lack of rigor."
Aparicio has made these statements based on the complaint of the Association of Patients and Users of Health and Social Healthcare (APUSAS), which has stated that other islands with fewer emergency cases have better resources.
"We are in the pre-election period and all associations affiliated with parties, as is the case here, try to make noise and undermine the work of the Government of the Canary Islands," the manager defended.
Profitability "has never been a criterion to follow"
Aparicio indicated in an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that profitability "has never been a criterion to follow, neither for emergencies nor for anything else," in response to APUSAS's accusation that there are no more services because it is not economically profitable.
Regarding the idea of locating an emergency service in Mala (Haría), the healthcare professional indicated that it would be "unusable": "We have to be serious, a person who lives in Costa Teguise is not going to go to Mala, nor one who lives in Nazaret or in almost the entire town... Everyone will go to Valterra."
In that sense, the healthcare manager explained that the average number of patients who go to the Valterra emergency resource is 1.2 per day, that is, "only one or two people attend per day."
In turn, the medicalized ambulance carried out 75 interventions in the north last year 2021, which corresponds to "only one outing every four days."
Comparison with Fuerteventura
Regarding the comparative grievance with Fuerteventura, Aparicio began by clarifying that "there is no" a Regional Emergency Plan, what is used is the Canary Islands Health Emergency Plan, which has not been updated "for four years."
"And even if it had been optimized, it would never have contemplated that all health centers in Fuerteventura have emergency services, because it would be an unsustainable absurdity," he assures.
Fuerteventura, from end to end, has 170 kilometers, while Lanzarote has 60. The first island treasures five emergency services (one hospital and four primary care), while the second has four (one hospital and three primary care).
"It seems normal to me that because it is larger, it has one more service," says the manager.
In that same line, he points out that, in this case, Lanzarote has two medicalized ambulances, just like Fuerteventura. "Where is the comparative grievance then?" Aparicio questions.
Comparison with other islands
With respect to other islands, the healthcare manager indicates that the scheme is repeated: "We are above the average quality of other territories in the Canary Islands."
To support this statement, he again resorts to the data, which shows that patient satisfaction when they go to the emergency room has an average score of 8.4.
"On the island we have tools that others do not have, such as portable ultrasound machines. In addition, in Lanzarote the image of having to attend to people in hospital corridors due to collapse has never been seen, unlike other places," he explains.
Aparicio, based on what has been said, emphasizes that from the Management "we have always tried to make a rigorous, fair and apolitical management," which moves away from the "unjustified" statements of APUSAS.
