The deputy of the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa and island president of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-bc), Yoné Caraballo, has shown his concern after receiving a written response from the Management of the health services of Lanzarote to a request for documentation presented in December, where he is succinctly stated that “a schedule of transfers of users and workers of the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote will be established once the work of the multipurpose building is received”.
Caraballo maintains his “concern” regarding the response from the management since it shows that the intentions to close the Insular Hospital have not ceased despite the popular rejection that such a decision has received.
According to the Canarian deputy, “we do not understand the contradictions that exist, since on the one hand they express to the workers the urgency to transfer the elderly to Dr. José Molina Orosa but, however, even in two budget laws of the government of CC and PP they have not been able to reflect a single euro cent for any project to rehabilitate the infrastructure of the Insular Hospital building in Lanzarote”.
“The safety of the users and workers who are in the hospital center is crucial, and that is why we must know the reports that supposedly since 2019 detail the architectural deficiencies and risks it suffers”, says Caraballo, who continues saying that “he will be the first to request the immediate transfer of users and workers for their safety from the council as soon as he receives those reports and can verify that the building poses an imminent risk of collapse. However, if the urgency is not such, I will continue to defend that our elderly and staff of the only geriatric hospital that exists in the Canary Islands are not transferred until there is a project, budget item and a calendar specifying the date of return to it”.
At the same time, Yoné Caraballo “encourages the unions and workers of the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote not to be afraid and to demonstrate against what would be a definitive closure of the only geriatric hospital in the Canary Islands, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year 2025”.
“We cannot allow the quality of care for the elderly and the environment where they reside to be diminished, and in this sense, the multipurpose building does not meet the standards of buildings intended for the care of the elderly”, comments Caraballo, who states that “transfer yes, but temporary and with a budget sheet, project and return date”.
With everything, Caraballo will once again bring to the Parliament of the Canary Islands the situation of uncertainty suffered by the workers, users and, in general, the entire society of Lanzarote, who see with great concern how a transfer can become a definitive closure of an icon for our island such as the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote, “the people's hospital”.
