Public healthcare in Lanzarote has become a real disaster in recent years in terms of management. The fault lies not with the healthcare professionals, who are overwhelmed, but with the horrendous organization and management of the public service. A public service that we all pay for with our taxes and that constantly disappoints us.
The waiting lists for surgery and some specialties are desperate. Such is the organizational disaster on the part of whoever it may concern, that curious cases occur such as some specialists receiving expired diagnostic tests. There are even cases of appointments being lost. Of course, we must not forget the long six hours that one can spend in the hospital's emergency room.
The Molina Orosa is going to be expanded. It is possible that this expansion will be completed on the eve of the upcoming elections. But what good is an expansion if there are no staff or technological resources of our own? It is deplorable that public healthcare has to depend on donations from D. Amancio Ortega, to whom I express my greatest gratitude and admiration, and private concerts for an MRI, for example. What need is there for this? What happens to the management of public money? Where does the money from the taxes that suffocate us go?
Why are the hospital's emergency rooms congested? Without being an expert in these matters, but a humble user, one of the answers is that Primary Care must be reinforced, an unfairly forgotten service. The few professionals available in the offices spend a lot of time on bureaucratic tasks, which could be simplified by taking advantage of new technologies. The issue of sick leave, for example, comes to mind.
More resources must be invested in Primary Care, which must be considered the basis of healthcare, and improve coordination, since sometimes it seems that everyone is on their own and, when this happens, the health system collapses.
To get out of the disaster, the professionalization of public services and their urgent depoliticization are needed, among other aspects. One of the pillars of a welfare state is healthcare.
Jesús Manuel Díaz Lorente.
