The manager of the Lanzarote Health Services, Pablo Eguía, spoke this Monday on the radio program Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero to explain the situation of the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote, the public geriatric center of reference on the island, after the statements of the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Esther Monzón, announcing its closure.
Eguía pointed out that the problem lies in the fact that one of the buildings of the Insular Hospital, which is almost 75 years old, suffers "structural damage", according to the "technical reports since 2019 and a comprehensive renovation of the entire building" is necessary. However, he has ruled out that this implies the closure of this space: "At no time has the closure been put on the table".
The head of the island's Health Services has assured that this temporary closure will only occur in the building that houses the Medium-Stay Hospitalization and Consultation units. Both will be transferred "transitorily" to the multipurpose building that has been created next to the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital, but the Residence and Day Hospital units, which are carried out in another building, will maintain their activity as before because the structure of this construction is not damaged.
Likewise, in the morning show Buenos días, Lanzarote, the manager pointed out that "the second problem" is "the conditions in which our professionals work and our elders are cared for". At this point, Eguía pointed to the "size of the rooms and the accessibility of the bathrooms", but also mentioned the case of the Cantú Unit, "where ten women live in a kind of giant room".
The manager of the Lanzarote Health Services has assured that "the conditions in which our elders of Lanzarote are cared for are far from what is recommended today". Meanwhile, he praised the work of the professionals of the Canarian Health Service who "make up for the shortcomings they have had for many years".
The person in charge has indicated that "as of today, one year after" meeting with the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands "we still do not have a date for the reception of the multipurpose building" and that, therefore, they cannot specify when this temporary transfer is going to occur "and that it could be within "six months, a year or three".
Eguía has defended that with this temporary transfer "the conditions of the patients are going to be infinitely better" than the current ones in the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote and that "the professionals are also going to work much better". In addition, he indicated that in order to guarantee coordination between the management of the Insular Hospital and the Molina Orosa, a joint commission has already been created to "establish a transfer plan" for medium-stay patients and consultations".
Despite the fact that the technical reports date from 2019, according to Eguía, the intention is to "transfer this activity to the multipurpose building as soon as possible". At the same time, he has publicly rejected the mobilization of the parliamentarians of the PSOE and Nueva Canarias in the face of the closure of the building. "We are witnessing an instrumentalization of the workers and the suffering of the families seeking a political benefit and the professionals are tired", he assured.
To conclude, the manager of Health of Lanzarote has highlighted the importance of the Master Plan of Infrastructures to know "what infrastructures we need within 15 years" in Lanzarote. In addition, he indicated that the structures must be planned according to population growth, which on the island of volcanoes is greater than the Canarian average.
Thus, he added that "we need a medium-stay hospital. If the technical report tells us that it fits within the hospital grounds, what happens is that the Insular Hospital must also take into account that the facade is protected, it has a series of architectural limitations that perhaps will not allow us to make the hospital of the future that we need in Lanzarote, but if it fits there, let the Government decide whether to do it there or whether to build a new hospital outside that plot".