The Patient Advocate association presented 307 complaints last year for alleged negligence committed in public hospitals in the Canary Islands, 10% more than in 2023, it reported this Monday in a statement in which it assures that the emergency services of the islands "are the worst" in Spain.
Of the complaints filed last year, 26 were for death and most were registered in the centers of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 174), while in those of Las Palmas, they reached 133, although the hospital complexes that were most denounced were the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (Tenerife) and Doctor Negrín (Gran Canaria), according to the association in a statement this Monday.
These two centers were followed by the Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria Hospital (Tenerife), the Insular Materno Infantil (Gran Canaria) and the José Molina Orosa Hospital (Lanzarote), the note indicates.
The emergencies, the waiting lists, general surgery, traumatology and the specialty of gynecology and obstetrics were the services and specialties that concentrated the highest number of claims in the Canary Islands, the group emphasizes.
The number of complaints in 2024 is within normal parameters, seven cases below the average of the last decade in the Canary Islands, which is 314 complaints per year.
The surgical waiting list has improved compared to 2023, but reaches 127 days in the case of surgeries and a total of 34,125 Canarians are on it.
In relation to 2023, it is 26 days below the average and 2,270 fewer patients.
The citizens who wait the longest for surgery are in the specialties of traumatology-orthopedic surgery and ophthalmology, with cataract operations, hip or knee prostheses and arthroscopy concentrating the longest waits.
"Old makeup trick"
In any case, the association warns that they have found that when the last days of June are approaching, which is when the structural waiting list is measured (the official one), patients are notified with little margin to decide, even from one day to the next to enter the operating room, so many postpone the surgery and then the Canary Islands Health Service refers them to the non-structural list, "leaving them in limbo waiting for a new date."
The Patient Advocate points out that "it is an old makeup trick like the one that the Community of Madrid has used so many times."
Regarding emergencies, it has stressed that "they are absolutely overwhelmed during a large part of the year", while the plan so announced by the Executive to relieve hospitals has not yet been implemented.
According to the association, the healthcare pressure has reached the point of having to accelerate hospital discharges without the patients being recovered, due to the lack of hospitalization beds, as well as operating rooms.
Regarding mental health, it emphasizes that resources are insufficient due to the shortage of psychiatrists and because consultation times are short.
