The deputy of Lanzarote and La Graciosa for Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC), Yoné Caraballo, will speak this Friday at the Health Commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands to ask the Minister of the area if a 24-hour Continuous Care Service will be created at the Mala Health Center and incorporate a sanitized ambulance in Arrieta. This initiative was already approved in July 2022 unanimously among all political groups through a Non-Law Proposal.
To this question, the Minister of Health, Esther Monzón, stated that according to "technical criteria" the requested service "does not compensate". She justifies this by citing the 4,333 health cards held by the Haría-Mala Basic Health Zone; the service from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. of the Haría and Mala Health Centers; and the "reduced" attention of users from the Haría-Mala Basic Health Zone in the Valterra emergency room (341 patients in 2022). With this data, the government definitively "closes" the possibility of the northern region being provided with greater health care.
For the Canarian deputy, Yoné Caraballo, the argument presented by the Minister is "ambiguous and lacks all the data." Thus, Caraballo maintains that "the need for the 24-hour Continuous Care Service in Mala is justified not only to serve patients with health cards in the Haría-Mala Basic Health Zone, but for the entire northern region, that is, including Tahiche, Teseguite, El Mojón, and Guatiza; and for the floating tourist population from both the north and La Graciosa."
Similarly, Caraballo says that "the users of the region who go not only to the Valterra emergency room are not taken into account; but fundamentally to those of the Doctor Molina Orosa Hospital. Therefore, the Minister presents incomplete and biased data to support her refusal."
"Once again, we hear technical criteria to paralyze any progress in the health services of Lanzarote. An island with an increasingly large population and with more needs that, however, maintains 20th-century public services," argues Caraballo, who sees "a risk in health security by not having this emergency service so demanded by the population."
In addition, Yoné Caraballo contradicts the Minister by reminding her that her predecessor in office, Blas Trujillo, announced the implementation of this service on several occasions once the Non-Law Proposal was approved. "Minister Monzón is lying when she says that nothing more was known about this initiative once it was approved in Parliament. It is public knowledge that NC-BC and myself have not stopped insisting on this demand, and we will continue in our efforts until it becomes a reality. For justice to the northern region and to Lanzarote," says Caraballo.
Therefore, the deputy announces that he will coordinate with institutions, parties, associations, and citizens in general so that this "contempt" for the people of Lanzarote, first denying them the Mental Health Subunit in the hospital's emergency room, and now with this refusal of the 24-hour service in Mala, does not fall into oblivion.
"Now more than ever my presence in the Parliament of the Canary Islands makes sense. Defending public health above acronyms and people, that was and will be my commitment," says Caraballo.