The manager of Sanitary Services of Lanzarote, Pablo Eguía, revealed this Wednesday in Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that he has requested the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Heritage area of the Canarian Health Service, not to renew the concession of the ITV of Argana in order to allocate the space to hospital use.
These statements arise in the midst of a debate about whether the Doctor José Molina Orosa Hospital is becoming too small for the population and visitors of the island and whether a new hospital could be built or the existing one expanded.
The space where the ITV is currently located, of 5,000 square meters, is located next to one of the sides of the hospital center. Specifically, it borders the cafeteria area of the Molina Orosa. For the moment, the Sanitary Service of Lanzarote has already requested the Canarian Executive not to renew that license, which, according to what has been revealed, "in June 2025 could no longer be renewed further".
In addition, he pointed out that "there are several properties around the hospital" in which the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, is interested to see "if some kind of agreement can be made". In the hospital environment, there are around "40,000 square meters of infrastructures, distribution businesses and factories that could be located in other places", he continued.
The manager of Sanitary Services of Lanzarote, Pablo Eguía, added that in that case some kind of exchange could be reached with the properties. Or in another case, it would be necessary to consider whether "it is interesting in some way to go outside and create a new health city in a very large plot and make a modular growth".
Eguía indicated that "it is very important that the management and health planning, is in accordance with the resources and we must be aware that the needs are unlimited and the resources we have are what they are". Thus, he indicated that the decision to build a new hospital center or expand the existing one must correspond to a political decision and the capacity of the government to be able to make a new hospital.
Regarding the lack of personnel, he defended that the Lanzarote Health Management has 3,000 people hired. However, he indicated that the need to be able to count on "some more facultative, some more doctor, some more nurse and in all categories" has already been put on the table, he concluded.