The Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, held this Friday, December 16, the meeting of the Health Council of the island, the highest body for participation of groups linked to the health sector.
The meeting was chaired by the director of the Area, Noelia Umpiérrez, and was attended by the manager of the Lanzarote Health Services, José Luis Aparicio, the director of Primary Care, Aniuska Sutil, and the medical director of Molina Orosa, Carlos García Zerpa. Also attending were Public Health officials and representatives of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the island's town councils, unions, associations and neighborhood and social groups.
During the meeting held at the Insular Hospital facilities, the activity report of the Health Management and the management results for the year 2021 were presented.
The assistance in figures
In his presentation to the island representatives, the manager José Luis Aparicio, highlighted the volume of care activity in the past year in which a total of 165,798 consultations were recorded in the specialty area and 8,895 surgical interventions were performed, some of them of great complexity at the Molina Molina Orosa Hospital. On the other hand, he pointed out the increase in diagnostic tests that reached 72,224 last year and the 110,739 radiological studies that were carried out.
The Emergency service provided care to more than 54,560 people throughout the last year, while in Primary Care more than one and a half million consultations were exceeded and in the Insular Hospital they amounted to about seven thousand.
The island activity report includes the incorporation of new professionals to the Management such as psychologists, speech therapists and physiotherapists who have joined the services of health centers through the Primary and Community Care Strategy +AP, launched this year by the SCS. He also highlighted the hiring of doctors, nursing assistants, laboratory technicians, midwives for the hospital during the past year.
Infrastructure and environment
The meeting of the Health Council also served to review the works and reforms that have been carried out in the health facilities of the island. The manager highlighted the work of the Engineering and Maintenance Service and the numerous actions they have undertaken, such as the reform carried out in the Insular Hospital, the photovoltaic installations placed in the health center of La Graciosa and the execution of the conditioning works in the new hemodynamics area. He also recalled the role played by this service in the adaptation of hospital spaces for the management of the covid-19 pandemic.
José Luis Aparicio stressed the commitment to minimize the waste of the Management, explained the investment in energy efficiency measures, the acquisition of electric and hybrid vehicles and how considerable thermal and electrical savings have been achieved as well as a reduction of emissions to the atmosphere by the island's health facilities, following the SCS Net Zero Emissions Health Strategy.
The director of Primary Care, Aniuska Sutil, emphasized the effort and commitment of health personnel to meet the needs of the population in these years marked by the pandemic and alluded to the various exceptional measures that had to be adopted during confinement and in the subsequent period to ensure assistance to users.
From the Directorate of the Lanzarote Health Area, the activity carried out by the inspectors attached to the Area during the past year was presented. Its head, Noelia Umpiérrez, highlighted the incorporation into the service through renting of the new vehicles for professionals to perform their work.
Health Council
The Health Council is a citizen participation body that brings together, in addition to members of the Canary Health Service, representatives of the island council of the town councils, and professional associations, patient associations, unions and neighborhood associations of Lanzarote.
It is a collegiate body that develops advisory and consultative functions on issues related to health activities that take place within its demarcation. Contemplated in the Health Planning Law of the Canary Islands, they serve to make effective the participation of the different administrations and social agents in health activities, their adaptation to the regulations and the social needs of the population.
