The Lanzarote Health Area, attached to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, held this Monday, September 29, the meeting of the Island's Health Council, the highest body for the participation of groups linked to the health sector.
The meeting was chaired by the director of the Area, Esther Machín, and was attended by the general secretary of the SCS, María Jesús López Neira, the manager of the Lanzarote Health Services, Pablo Eguia, the director of Primary Care, María Eugenia Perdomo, and the medical director of the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital, Luis Carlos Moreno. Also attending were Public Health officials and representatives from the Lanzarote Cabildo, the island's town councils, unions, associations, and neighborhood and social groups.
During the meeting held at the El Zaguán citizen participation center in Arrecife, the activity reports of the Area Directorate and the Health Services Management were approved with the management results for the year 2024. In addition, among other matters, information was provided on the preparation of the preliminary draft of the Canary Islands Health Plan 2026-2031.
Assistance in figures
In his presentation to the island representatives, Pablo Eguia highlighted the healthcare activity of the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital during the past year, in which a total of 248,364 consultations were recorded from the various specialties. He also highlighted the record figure of 11,699 surgical interventions that were performed at the center in 2024, which had never been reached before. The number of patients hospitalized at the center amounted to 10,205 and their average stay was 5.62 days.
Similarly, Eguia referred to the more than 57,000 diagnostic and therapeutic tests performed last year and the 128,329 Radiology studies that the Hospital hosted. In this sense, the improvement of diagnostic tests and the growth experienced by some sections such as the digestive area, which last year performed 7,565 endoscopies, or the neurophysiological tests with a growth of almost 20%, reaching 1,615 studies, stand out.
The Emergency service attended to 75,288 people with a daily average of 203 patients and the Hospos.
More Primary Care consultations
Regarding Primary Care data, in 2024, a total of 1,804,658 were attended, which is 10% more than in 2023. Of these consultations, the growth of family and community medicine consultations stands out with almost 50% with a total of 724,492 consultations attended. For its part, nursing performed 356,000 consultations, midwives 30,582, pediatricians 111,945, while dentistry consultations total almost 14,000.
Primary Care physiotherapists attended 22,228 sessions, Speech Therapy consultations amounted to 7,146 and Psychology consultations to 12,917, while social workers carried out 9,387 interventions. Consultations attended by Emergencies in primary care total 358,450.
In addition, the manager pointed out the growth of the organic staff and the incorporation of new specialists to the Management of the Lanzarote Health Services, while noting that work continues to retain talent and consolidate staff, as well as in the progressive expansion of the service portfolio.
Investments in Infrastructure and equipment
The meeting of the Health Council also served to announce the works and reforms that have been carried out in the island's health facilities and the projects that are being worked on.
In that sense, Pablo Eguia highlighted the investments of the Canary Islands Budget Law for the Management of Lanzarote Health Services in infrastructure and equipment during the year 2025, which reaches the historical figure of 7,624,745 euros, with a growth of almost 50% compared to the year that has just concluded.
From the Directorate of the Lanzarote Health Area, the activity carried out by the inspectors attached to the Area during the past year was presented. In this sense, its head, Esther Machín, highlighted the work carried out by Medical Inspection and Public Health in order to improve healthcare provision to the society of Lanzarote.
Canary Islands Health Plan 2026-2031
During the meeting, information was also provided on the progress of the work on the preliminary draft of the Canary Islands Health Plan 2026-2031, currently in the drafting phase and the start of the participatory process. This project is coordinated by the Support Unit for the Directorate of the Canary Health Service, with the support of a Technical Advisory Committee, made up of a multidisciplinary team of SCS professionals, and which will also have the contributions of the Health Councils of all the Health Areas of the archipelago.
Health plans are strategic instruments of health planning that establish the priorities, lines of action and goals, for the planning, coordination and articulation of activities for the promotion and protection of health, the prevention of diseases and the provision of healthcare.
The Canary Islands Health Plan 2026-2031 is articulated around two axes: Health in All Policies, aimed at promoting intersectorality and community health, and the Improvement of Health Outcomes, focused on health problems with the greatest impact and the cost-effectiveness of the selected actions. In addition, it will incorporate in its development the guiding values of equity, efficiency and commitment to scientific evidence and healthy communities, for person-centered care in its multiple dimensions.
Five thematic areas
The Plan will be structured into five thematic blocks, each of which will include 48 priority lines to be addressed during the period of validity, in which 140 specific objectives and 255 evaluation indicators will be developed. The thematic blocks in which the Plan will be organized correspond to 'Promotion and Protection of Health. Disease Prevention', 'Improvement of services and health outcomes'; 'Healthy aging and care for chronicity'; 'Intersectorality'; and 'Transversal perspective'.
Health Council
The Health Council is a citizen participation body that brings together, in addition to members of the Canary Health Service, representatives of the island council of the town councils, and professional associations, patient associations, unions and neighborhood groups of Lanzarote.
It is a collegiate body that performs advisory and consultation functions on issues related to health activities that are carried out within its demarcation. Contemplated in the Canary Islands Health Planning Law, they serve to make effective the participation of the different administrations and social agents in health activities, their adaptation to the regulations and the social needs of the population.
