Intersindical Canaria held a press conference this Wednesday outside the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote to address the complex problems concerning the facilities, patients, users, and workers, in the face of the "obstructive attitude of the Administration".
"We are referring to a historical and social heritage of Lanzarote that, in addition to being a Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), is not just a building: it is part of the collective memory of the island and of a nation, the Canary Islands, which suffers from a lack of sociosanitary beds and for decades this has been an essential resource for the population, especially for the elderly and dependent," they argue. Its trajectory makes it an emblem of Lanzarote's public healthcare, a center that has accompanied the island's growth and responded to its needs when there were no alternatives.
Furthermore, they have pointed out that it is "an irreplaceable pillar of care," as the hospital has guaranteed close, humane, and continuous attention, especially in geriatrics, day hospital, and long-term care. Its care model, based on proximity and specialization, "cannot be transferred without loss of quality to improvised or insufficient spaces like those intended, and without absolute guarantees, as the Insular is a resource that cannot be dismantled without serious consequences for thousands of users."
"At the Insular Hospital, professionals work with long careers, specialization, and a deep knowledge of the patient profile they serve. This human capital cannot be treated as movable pieces. The lack of planning and the absence of a clear project generate job uncertainty, overload, and loss of rights," they stated.
Furthermore, it is a center with teaching and training functions. It has a training unit for Geriatricians, the first in the Spanish state and the only one in the Canary Islands. It is, therefore, a learning space for students, residents, and new professionals. "Its partial closure or emptying means losing a training environment that has contributed to the quality of the healthcare system on the island and in the Canary Islands. Healthcare teaching needs stability, resources, and continuity, not improvisation or abandonment," they continued.
Institutional Abandonment: A Strategy by Omission
The institutions and the Government of the Canary Islands (CC and PP), through their Ministry of Health, "have used the strategy of letting the hospital die due to lack of investment and planning, in their policy of harassment and demolition of our elders." Currently, and since 2018, "there is no comprehensive reform project, nor a timeline, nor an assigned budget. They limit themselves to announcing alternatives without guarantees, without professional participation, and without transparency. This dereliction of duty leads to deterioration, and that deterioration is then used as an excuse to justify transfers or closures."
Therefore, "we confirm that the facts contradict all the statements made by the administration to recover those beds, with the objective of liquidating them, in one way or another: if the users are transferred to the new emerging diseases building, even without the work having been delivered, sanitary beds will be occupied by socio-sanitary patients, increasing the problem of the nearly one thousand patients with these characteristics who are improperly occupying hospital beds," they stated"No one denies that the building requires profound intervention, but responsible remodeling demands maintaining healthcare services, guaranteeing adequate spaces, and planning rigorously. What cannot be allowed is for the renovation to be used as a pretext to empty the hospital, scatter services, or precarious the staff," they continued.
Intersindical Canaria demands:
1. That the **continuity of all services** at the Insular Hospital be guaranteed, ensuring **all jobs**, without cuts or forced transfers.That a real reform project be made available to the workers' representatives, with public funding and deadlines, subject to the Transparency Law, immediately halting any maneuver that could imply a covert dismantling.
3. That not a single one of the eighty operational medium and long-stay beds, primarily aimed at geriatric and socio-sanitary care, be eliminated.
4. Include representatives of workers, professionals, and citizens in decision-making.
Finally, they have announced that it will be the Workers' Assembly "who will resolve a schedule of mobilizations for the defense of the hospital, since the workers and the citizens of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands have the right to strong public healthcare, and that includes **keeping the Insular operational while its future is planned**".