The Councilor for Social Welfare and Health of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Marciano Acuña, visited this Tuesday the hyperbaric chamber that has been in the Insular Hospital since 1996, to attend to medical problems generated by the practice of diving. After the visit, the Cabildo highlighted that there are only two hyperbaric chambers accredited for sanitary use in all of the Canary Islands: the one in Lanzarote and one more in the University Hospital of Tenerife.
In addition, the Corporation has made public that "in past months", the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, signed the award contract for the direction and management of the hyperbaric medicine service of the Insular Hospital with the company Hiperox Lanzarote. The objective of this Tuesday's visit, according to Marci Acuña, was "to make known to the society of Lanzarote that on the island we have this infrastructure to attend 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to any accident that has to do with diving and the sea."
In this regard, from the Cabildo they highlight that Lanzarote offers to the more than 100,000 tourists who choose the island every year for the practice of diving an additional addition, which guarantees the safety of their dives. "Having this medical service in Lanzarote constitutes a differentiated value and an added determining factor for the island and not another destination in the archipelago to be chosen by a large part of this segment of tourism that represents 5.4% of the tourists who visit the island each year", the Corporation maintains in a statement.
According to the data center of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, during 2013 there were 103,282 tourists who practiced diving in Lanzarote, which is considered a growing tourist activity that is gaining more boom every year.
Acuña was accompanied in the presentation, among others, by the president of the Security and Emergency Consortium, Soraya Brito; the director of the Insular Hospital, Domingo de Guzmán, and the medical director who manages the hyperbaric chamber, José Antonio Olmos. During the visit, Acuña stated that "having a service like this close by for a growing tourism such as diving, brings greater quality to the destination", so from the first Institution it was decided to "renew said commitment to maintain this service in the public facilities of the Insular Hospital with the transfer of the management of the chamber to this company, for a period of 4 years and a fee to the Cabildo of 9,000 euros per year".
"The company, in addition to said fee, undertakes to make improvements in the service and to continue maintaining the infrastructure and make it sustainable and viable over time", said the councilor.
For his part, the medical director of the service, José Antonio Olmos, was in charge of explaining what this chamber consists of. According to Olmos "these services range from treatments for those injured by underwater activities, as well as patients who have other diseases in which treatment with hyperbaric oxygen is essential for their cure and recovery.
To this service of the Insular Hospital, which "fundamentally neutralizes the nitrogen that is what causes the diver's disease", other therapies for athletes have recently been incorporated, both for recovery from injuries, overtraining or physical preparation for their sports tests. Likewise, hyperbaric oxygen therapy services will be offered to patients who want to take advantage of the improvement effects in the recovery of certain surgeries.
The medical director and specialist of this service explained that during the last years in the hyperbaric chamber of the Cabildo patients with various pathologies have been treated, such as sudden blindness, diabetic foot, hemorrhagic cystitis, radionecrosis of the jaw, gangrene and others. The oxygen that is dispensed in the chamber, whose treatment can range between 1 and 36 hours, with treatments of about 6 hours being the usual, has very successful effects in other diseases such as poisoning by toxic gases, necrotizing infections, thrombotic hemorrhagic accident of cerebrovascular, for osteomyelitis, healing in wound or ulcer problems and even for the consolidation of fractures or aesthetic interventions in cell regeneration processes.
On the island of Lanzarote, this assistance has been provided for 18 years, fundamentally to diving accident victims from all the islands of the archipelago, with a history of more than 130 patients who have required said therapy and provided assistance to another 200 divers.
During the presentation, the representative of the Professional Association of Diving Schools and Centers in Lanzarote (BUCO) and the representative-technician of Tourism of AETUR, Delma Duque, were also present, who ratified the importance of continuing to have this service on the island "since it is a condition for many diving tourists to choose the seabed of Lanzarote and not others, due to the proximity and guarantee of safety offered by having a service like this at the destination". The company awarded the contract offers this health service to diving clubs in Lanzarote at special prices.
Finally, the Councilor for Social Welfare and Health of the first Island Corporation hopes that "this type of treatment dispensed in the hyperbaric chamber, through this company, will be extended and used for medical assistance to other patients, also with special rates through specific agreements".
