The deputy of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC), Yoné Caraballo, has expressed "his satisfaction" upon learning that the neurologist Pablo Eguia del Río will be in charge of the Health Services of Lanzarote. At the same time that he criticizes the decision of Coalición Canaria to put Esther Machín, with training as a travel agency technician, in charge of the direction of the Health area.
For Caraballo, “Eguia is an unimpeachable professional, who knows well the system and the health demands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. His appointment may be a window of opportunity to promote measures that correct the problems in the service portfolio, but also in the organization and respect for health personnel.”
Caraballo continues arguing that Eguia was “one of the many colleagues who saw the need to promote the collection of signatures to demand the medicalized helicopter with a permanent base in Lanzarote. An initiative with more than 50,000 signatures that demonstrates the sensitivity and social demand for this health transport service.” On the other hand, the Canarist reminds that Fernando Clavijo himself, current president of the Canary Islands, demanded in the last legislature the need for all the islands to have this type of health transport.
“I consider what Clavijo raised to be an occurrence, since the reality of El Hierro or La Gomera is not the same, where transfers by medicalized helicopter to the reference hospital in Tenerife are sporadic; to the reality of Lanzarote, where there is a daily demand to the hospitals of Gran Canaria”, expresses Caraballo.
Direction of the Health Area, an “abuse of power by CC”
In the same way that the Government Council of the Canary Islands appointed the new head of the Health Services of Lanzarote, it also did the same with the Direction of the Health Area, a senior position in the Canarian government and the highest responsible for the Ministry of Health on the island.
For Yoné Caraballo, the decision taken by CC represents an “authentic abuse of power” due to how alien the professional profile of who will be the new director, Esther Machín, is with respect to the position and the tasks that she must perform, which is, “neither more nor less, than the organization and health planning of Lanzarote and La Graciosa.”
As reflected in the same communication from the Government of the Canary Islands, Esther Machín maintains a training as a “professional technician of Travel Agencies, exercising her professional career in the private sector linked to travel and tourism promotion in the destination of products made in the Canary Islands.”
“There were already complaints last legislature from professionals and patient associations regarding the lack of training of senior officials with responsibility in health matters, concurring in them due to criteria of political and non-professional affiliation. A dangerous practice due to the high sensitivity of the area, which could be seen with the Covid-19 crisis where some senior officials were overwhelmed by the situation”, comments Caraballo.
And it is that for NC-bc the “colonization” of political parties in senior management positions is an unrigorous and very dangerous practice to bring Canarian public health to fruition. This has been expressed repeatedly by the president of the Canarist organization, Román Rodríguez, who has demanded “rethinking the health system, modifying the law, making an adapted plan and, most importantly, putting professionals in charge of management and not rigged ones.”
With everything, Yoné Caraballo extends his hand to the new team in charge of public health in Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and reminds them that there are many challenges they must face. Among them, the improvement of the territorial planning of the service portfolio, with the incorporation of the Arrecife Basic Health Zone 3 and the Playa Honda Basic Health Zone; the opening of the 24-hour Continuous Care Service at the Mala Health Center; the Argana and Playa Honda Health Center; the Radiotherapy and Hemodynamics Unit; the medicalized helicopter; the implementation of the Psychiatry Unit in Emergencies; among others.
“From my commitment to the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, and my responsibility in the Health Commission in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, I will be attentive to the decisions of this new Government in health matters. From NC-bc we will not allow setbacks in Canarian public health”, concludes Yoné Caraballo.