"The Emergency Service of the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital meets the functional, structural and organizational requirements that guarantee the necessary safety, quality and efficiency conditions to attend to emergencies". With this statement, the director of the Lanzarote Health Area, Erasmo García (CC), flatly denies the accusations of the Secretary of Organization of Somos Lanzarote, Borja Rubio, about the "alleged collapse and lack of resources in the hospital".
In this regard, García explained that, although "it is true that the situation, as everywhere, can be improved, there has been no collapse or people waiting in the corridors as has been said." "The management team is governed by the criteria of the Ombudsman and the National Health System for the organization and restructuring of the service to provide healthcare to the population in the face of increased frequency, overcrowding and, on occasions, inappropriate use of hospital emergencies, which varies between 43% and 68%", says Erasmo.
"It is not something we are inventing - says the island director -. These are phenomena documented internationally. More than 80% of patients who go to the emergency room do so without being referred from other services and 85% are discharged home".
García adds that, permanently, analyzes of personnel needs are carried out, which has allowed the expansion of the emergency staff above the staff of the organic staff. Thus, for example, "we have five more nurses to increase healthcare coverage", he stresses.
Among the data provided, the leader of Coalición Canaria points out that in December 2017, 5,699 emergencies were attended, 1% more than in 2016 (only two more patients per day), and that the frequency of hospital emergencies on the island throughout the past year was 456.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. A figure that "is below the state average where the frequency of hospital emergencies is estimated at 585.3 per thousand inhabitants", he adds.
Regarding the Valterra Health Center, Erasmo García assures that the emergency service has two teams, each composed of a doctor and a nurse, who on weekends receive support from another reinforcement team that serves the population. Therefore, "the staff has not been reduced as Somos says".
With respect to the waiting list, it has improved by 9%, compared to 2016, compared to 6.5% in the Canary Islands. "Thus, we have managed to reduce the average waiting time from 157 days in 2016 to 145 in 2017. Is it still a lot? I agree, but we are working to reduce it even more", he points out.
As far as the Argana Health Center is concerned, the Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, is waiting for the Arrecife City Council to cede the land. "With the previous Councilor for Health, Samuel Martín, the negotiations were very advanced. We have funding for it, so we hope that the City Council will not delay any longer".
Likewise, García highlights that the drafting of the hospital expansion project has already been contracted, which includes the creation of an exclusive space for the installation of a bunker to be able to provide radiotherapy service on the island and, in addition, during the first semester of 2018 the hemodynamics unit will be launched in Lanzarote.
"For Coalición Canaria, healthcare is a priority issue and we are going to continue working and investing on the island. We are aware that the population is growing and that resources are never enough, but we have been improving and we are going to continue doing so".
In this way, he recalls that "it has been with Coalición Canaria at the head of the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands when the largest budget has been had and when the most has been invested not only on the island but throughout the archipelago". "To cite some examples, in addition to everything mentioned above, the Tinajo health center, which will be completed in the first quarter of this year, the tender for the Costa Teguise health center, the expansion of the Playa Honda health center, the repairs carried out in the Playa Blanca health center or the expansion of the local clinic in Yaiza are added, among other investments". "In addition, in February the installation of the Resonance on the island will be completed and the amount of allowances for patients and companions has been doubled", García highlights.
Thus, García recommends to Rubio, councilor of Somos Lanzarote in the capital's City Council "to focus on Arrecife, which has enough problems, and when he wants to have his minute of glory in the media, to do it at least with data on the table".
