"When they told me at the hospital that the appointment was in almost 15 months, I thought it was a joke." This is how a resident of Lanzarote expresses himself, who "in July of last year" was referred to the vascular surgeon because he needs a surgical intervention and does not have the appointment scheduled until December 2018, more than a year later. "I think it's a shame and a rip-off that they then say that healthcare is good here," he criticizes.
"I have a health problem that is not urgent but is of a certain seriousness and last summer I was referred to the specialist, in my case a vascular surgeon," says this man, who in October, seeing that they had not yet called him, decided to go to patient care, where they told him "that it was in 15 months." "I couldn't believe it and the truth is that I thought it was a joke and that it was for last December, not for 2018," says this patient who, faced with this, asked for it to be put in writing. "And in writing, effectively, they replied that the appointment is scheduled for December 2018," he adds.
Specifically, in a letter to which La Voz has had access from the Doctor Negrín Hospital of Gran Canaria, the hospital center to which they told him he had to be referred, this patient is informed that the appointment "is scheduled for December 4, 2018" although, however, it is specified that the admission service will communicate to him by telephone "the day and time".
"I think it's very serious that they laugh at patients, at those of us who pay for healthcare and suffer from it," complains this Lanzarote resident, who considers it a "shame and a rip-off" that politicians then say "that healthcare is good here." "Every time I hear politicians talking about how everything is wonderful, my delicate heart breaks," he says.
"Forced" to resort to a private clinic in the face of the "inadmissible" delay
Faced with this delay that he considers "inadmissible", this man has been "forced" to resort to private healthcare and be treated in a private clinic in Tenerife, as he points out that "there are hardly any vascular surgeons here." "And of course, it's costing me the flights, private insurance and they're also going to have to do an operation, which they've recommended that the sooner the better," complains this patient.
"One relies on public healthcare because we pay for it for something, but in the end they force us, if we want to take care of our health and if we can, because not everyone can, to resort to private insurance, which also doesn't work very well in Lanzarote because there aren't many specialists either, which on top of that gives me the feeling that we continue to suffer a great centralism from the large islands,"
"It's a bit sad that we are also at the mercy of altruistic donations"
This man's complaint against the functioning of public healthcare goes beyond his own case. "You see that if they are putting in some slightly more decent equipment it is because a private businessman donates it, as has happened with the owner of Zara," says this man referring to the donation made by the Amancio Ortega Foundation for the purchase of equipment for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer.
"It's a bit sad that we have to be at the mercy of altruistic donations, especially in cases like those of cancer patients, who also have to take a plane to go to another island to be treated and then return when, after a chemotherapy treatment, the body is left with nausea, dizziness, etc. I don't know the economic cost of sending them to another island, but even if it's cheaper, I don't think they are valuing the human cost of these people at all, whom they punish with these transfers," adds this healthcare user, who believes that, "in the 21st century", the island should be provided "with a reference hospital and not force people to be traveling."
