The Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, announced this Tuesday in the Plenary Session of the Parliament of the Canary Islands the creation of two new Basic Health Zones (BHZ) in Arrecife, which will mean doubling the two that it currently has, and in which the town of Playa Honda has been included, despite belonging to San Bartolomé. "This will respond to the significant population growth, which will lead to the creation and reform of Primary Care infrastructures," they pointed out from the Canary Islands Government
Currently, the municipality of Arrecife has two Health Zones, those of Santa Coloma-Titerroy (Arrecife I), equipped with the Santa Coloma Health Center and the Playa Honda Local Clinic, and that of Valterra (Arrecife II), integrated by the health center of the same name.
Both provide assistance to 75,652 users with health cards, which represents 51.61% of the total number of health users on the island of Lanzarote, which amounts to 146,575. Likewise, and according to data from the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (Istac), between 2015 and 2020 the capital of Lanzarote went from 56,940 to 64,645 inhabitants, which represents an increase of 7,705 inhabitants, 13.53% more.
In response to an interpellation from NC, Blas Trujillo explained that, due to this significant population growth, particularly in the Argana area, as well as its location and distance from the reference health center, in Titerroy, of 3.6 kilometers, "the expansion of the number of Basic Health Zones in Arrecife, contemplated in the modification of the Canary Islands Health Map, is justified."
The planning foreseen by the Canary Islands Health Service includes the creation of the new BHZ of Playa Honda, which will be equipped with the Playa Honda Health Center, and that of Argana, which will include the population centers of Argana Alta, Argana Baja and Maneje and will have a new health center, planned in the Health Infrastructure Plan with an investment of 2,900,755 euros.
Both BHZs will be added to the existing and operating ones, those of Titerroy and Valterra, the latter with an investment in the Infrastructure Plan of 678,000 euros for renovation works on its health center.
