Every day, many people have to travel from Lanzarote to attend medical appointments in hospitals in Gran Canaria. The Canary Health Service makes a bus "available" to patients and companions at the Gran Canaria airport that takes them to the Insular Hospital, the Materno Infantil and Doctor Negrín. So far everything may seem very good, but the reality is very different when you have to use that service.
The aforementioned bus is scheduled to leave from the Gran Canaria airport at half past nine in the morning, which forces you, regardless of the time of your appointment in Gran Canaria, to take the planes at very early hours.
Once in Gran Canaria, no one waits for or informs the patients. People have to find out by asking the first person who passes by. A stop lacking information, located on the ground floor of the airport, with a freezing cold due to the air currents that exist there, with hardly any seats for the people waiting and with a parking lot that is used by ambulances, Civil Guard cars and tourist buses that park there and confuse users into believing that it is the social security bus that has arrived.
The bus leaves at half past nine, right? asks someone who sees that ten minutes have already passed from the scheduled time. "Lately it's been arriving around 10 in the morning," replies another man who goes every day from Fuerteventura to undergo radiotherapy. But do you think it will come? "I have an appointment at 10:30 and I don't know if I'll arrive on time," says an elderly lady. Everyone looks at each other helplessly but no one has concrete answers. And there is no one to ask or a phone to call. People get nervous and some start to leave to catch the regular bus (Global) and others decide to continue waiting. Now there is only about half of the people who were there at half past nine. And while the passengers/patients wait for the arrival of the bus, you observe that a few meters away, right in front of the stop, there is a row of shiny dark-colored cars next to a group of uniformed drivers who chat while waiting for the arrival of different public officials from the Government of the Canary Islands. I confess that I do feel a bit of envy (and anger).
At ten o'clock the long-awaited bus arrives. It does not carry any identifying sign. The vehicle is already somewhat dilapidated. In its glory days it must have provided its work with dignity for tourists but it has become obsolete for that mission and now they put it at "our service". How kind! It is not at all adapted for people with the slightest mobility problem, which makes it painful to see elderly people or parents with babies going up or down those stairs.
You ask the bus driver the reason for the delay and the "good man" replies in an arrogant manner that he "does not control the traffic". Finally, after a trip enlivened with "nice music" (read reggaeton), mixed with the jerks of a bus that "no longer pulls", we arrive at our destination. Before getting off, the driver reminds us that the return will be at half past two. There are no more buses, whatever your consultation schedule at the hospital or your return flight.
The island director of the Lanzarote Health area, Don Erasmo García, should stop looking the other way and take action on this matter that affects so many patients. When will the implementation of the figure of the "caregiver/companion" on the bus be? When will there be better planning, an increase in frequency in the schedules and better information about the service? It's time, Mr. García. Don't leave it for tomorrow.
