The Popular Group in the Cabildo of Lanzarote has requested an appearance by the Minister of Health, José Juan Cruz, in the Plenary of the corporation to explain "what is going to be done in the face of the new breach by the Government of the Canary Islands regarding the incorporation of the Insular Hospital to the network of centers of the Canarian Health Service".
According to the popular, "the request for appearance occurs before the silence kept by the island government after the announcement made by the Minister of Health of the regional executive, in parliamentary headquarters, stating that it is impossible to assume the Insular Hospital in the last quarter of this year, as planned in the agreement signed between the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands in March 2015".
For the PP, the arguments put forward by the regional head of the area, Jesús Morera, "are mere excuses, as they are the same ones that were put on the table to justify and give as failed the negotiation attempts carried out in 2008, 2010 and 2011". "It is not serious that in 2016 we are told that this issue needs to be thought about more", says the spokesman for the Popular Group, Angel Vázquez. "We have been waiting for 22 years and reflecting for 22 years, so all that remains is to stop beating around the bush, have the will and make decisions", says the councillor.
Motions, agreements and declarations of intent "since 2005"
"Since 2005, motions, agreements and declarations of intent have been approved in the Cabildo regarding the need for the Government of the Canary Islands to assume the management of the Insular Hospital. In each bump, the complexity of the process has been put forward as an argument, which is undoubtedly so and no one disputes it, and the many loose ends and edges that the integration has, but the reality is that this time has not been used, all these years, to solve them and complete the integration", insists Angel Vázquez.
"In practice, we are in the same place", he stresses. "Now we see that among the councillor's excuses is the age of the building and its poor condition, when it is nothing new. For better or worse, the situation of the Insular Hospital in this sense is the same today as it was a year ago, the same as on March 28, 2015 when the agreement was signed and, even so, a date was set for the signing of the final agreement at the end of this year 2016".
On this point, Vázquez adds that "if the Government of the Canary Islands understands that a new Hospital is necessary", what it should do is consider its financing through the ITE funds "and that it be carried out, but that cannot be an excuse for not assuming its powers".
The Law "clearly establishes the powers"
The popular recall that both the General Health Law of 1985 and the Health Planning Law of 1994 "clearly establish that the powers in health matters are of an autonomous nature and it is, within this framework, that negotiations must be carried out". "Neither more nor less", remarks the spokesman, who insists that currently, "Lanzarote is the only Cabildo that bears the significant economic cost of a center of these characteristics".
Meanwhile, the PP hope that the Minister of Health of the Cabildo "will be clear when explaining the real reasons for this breach and the new forecasts that are being handled", during his appearance in the Plenary next Friday. "What we are going to demand is that this integration be included in the budgets of the Autonomous Community for 2017", the popular anticipate.
