The Ministry of Health informed the Governing Council of the Canary Islands this Monday of the award, through emergency procedures, of the works to complete the Polivalent Building of the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital, an action that will allow the transfer of staff and users from the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote.
The works, awarded to Lanzagrava S.A., have a budget of 775,574 euros and an execution period of seven months. In addition to this, the drafting of the project and the technical direction of the works have been awarded for an amount of 191,000 euros.
According to the regional Executive, the adaptation of the building will allow the maintenance of Lanzarote's geriatric model, which it describes as "a benchmark" for the rest of the islands, in addition to expanding the healthcare capacity of the Molina Orosa Hospital.
The decision is based on a report from the Infrastructure Service of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), which concludes that the Polivalent Building requires a series of prior actions to be used in adequate conditions. Given this situation, the General Directorate of Economic Resources of the SCS agreed in May to initiate the emergency contracting procedure to carry out the essential works that would allow the transfer of patients.
Health maintains that the transfer responds to the need to guarantee the safety of patients and professionals, as the current Insular Hospital presents "structural deficiencies" that advise against maintaining healthcare activity there. The Government insists that the building requires a comprehensive renovation, so the transfer will be temporary and will affect the areas of hospitalization, rehabilitation, consultations, and the elderly residence.
Likewise, it recalls that it was during the current legislature that the Canary Islands Health Service completed the reception of the Polivalent Building and that, once the adaptation works are completed, the building will allow for both the transfer of activity and the expansion of the healthcare capacity of the Molina Orosa Hospital.
Citizen Protest
The award, however, comes in a context of strong social rejection. On June 20, around 7,000 people, according to the Local Police of Arrecife, demonstrated to demand the continuity of the Insular Hospital and to call for its renovation instead of a transfer without guarantees of return.
The mobilization, called by the Marea Blanca Platform and made up of workers, users, unions, political parties, and associations, was led by patients from the center in wheelchairs and by a banner with the slogan: "For dignified public healthcare. Public healthcare is not a business, it is a right". Among the attendees was also the former director of the sociosanitary center, Domingo de Guzmán.
During the march, messages such as "Guarantee of reform", "No to closure, yes to reform", "We need geriatrics and the protection of our elders" or "Actions, not words" could be seen.
They demand a commitment to reform
The Hospital Insular, dependent on the Government of the Canary Islands since 2019 after its transfer from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, occupies a 75-year-old building that, according to the Executive itself, requires comprehensive reform.
The center houses the acute and medium-stay unit, the long-stay unit, the residence known as CANTOU, and the Day Hospital for geriatric patients.
Although the Canarian Health Service defends the transfer for safety reasons, the Marea Blanca Platform denounces that there is no project, funding, or schedule to rehabilitate the Hospital Insular and guarantee the return of activity once the reform is completed.
At the end of the demonstration, the platform's spokesperson, Yasmina Tabares, assured that the transfer will be "to a place where geriatrics has no place" and called on the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the Canarian Health Service, and the Government of the Canary Islands to abandon "empty commitments" and specify the future of the center.
The platform maintains that the situation puts the continuity of geriatric care and teaching activity at risk and states that it has already collected 21,426 signatures in support of the continuity of the Hospital Insular.
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