Once again I find myself forced, by myself, to come out in defense of the Insular Hospital of Lanzarote.
We have heard ad nauseam that we are a benchmark in the field of geriatrics, but why? In what sense are we a benchmark?
I suppose, firstly, due to the human quality in care, for always trying to provide attention centered on the person we have to care for, who is not just a number or another user, but a human being, vulnerable at that moment due to their state of health, or their situation of dependency in the case that they are not suffering from an acute illness at that moment.
The second reason that makes us benchmarks, in addition to the specialization of doctors, nurses, and nursing assistants in geriatrics, the specialized training of all our technicians and therapists (physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, and cultural animation technicians) is the fact that all care levels are in the same space, which allows the interdisciplinary team to always be up-to-date on changes in the individualized treatment of each patient.
A doctor expert in Geriatrics states that the justification for transferring patients from the acute unit to the Hospital José Molina Orosa is based on the convenience of having a center with all the specialties nearby that those elderly patients admitted to an acute unit of the Insular Hospital may need at any given time.
I cannot give you a figure for how many readmissions are carried out from the HI to the HJMO, but while I worked there they were very few, almost none.
It is true that in some cases that have been transferred to the UME (Medium Stay Unit) they have some clinical exacerbation and again have to be transferred to UGA (Acute Unit), with the latter being in the same building and without the need to go to a General Hospital. This also happened very rarely.
Why do I need to say all this? Because the idea of the transfer is indeed continuing, and money is being spent that could well be used for the adaptation of the Insular Hospital, which already exists, into a unit that was supposedly already prepared for this change.
I do not know what these repairs consist of, but the truth is that the building where the elderly with acute illness will supposedly be housed does not even have windows facing the outside, only small windows at the top of each room, so they could not even see what is happening outside those four walls.
With the change, one of the crown jewels of our Insular Hospital, which is the food, would also be lost.
We already know that in general all patients of any age lose weight when admitted to a hospital, regardless of their age, one is because they are sick, but another is due to the poor quality of the meals served in hospitals, an aspect that is common knowledge,
If the transfer is made, who guarantees us that they will continue to eat well?
What will those who remain in the Insular Hospital eat?
The impression is that the Management of the HJMO sees Geriatrics as a "nobody" that does not deserve so much expense, and it is much more economical for them to divide the service and turn the care of the elderly with acute illness into another service of a General Hospital.
The demonstration we held on June 20 showed that the citizens of Lanzarote appreciate having a service like the one provided by the Insular Hospital, but I fear that it will be necessary to take to the streets again, so that they truly pay attention to us and begin to release budgets for the Rehabilitation of the Insular Hospital, which we already know is possible with money and political will.
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