The echo of the June 20th demonstration, where thousands of people spoke out against the closure of the Insular Hospital, for its reform, improvement, and for the defense of public healthcare, had not yet died down, when some of our public representatives rushed to question such demands and to censor the personal appearance of the women who were there. Instead of this reactive response against thousands of citizens demonstrating for a legitimate demand, why don't they turn it into an instrument to demand in the centers of power of Gran Canaria or Tenerife what the island needs? Wasn't that how the unity of radiotherapy was achieved? Isn't that also what participation in a democratic society consists of?
Due to family circumstances, I have spent several days going through the Materno Infantil Hospital in Gran Canaria. A hospital that is 44 years old. Most of its facilities have never been renovated and have their original appearance. I can assure you that the interior appearance of our Insular Hospital is much better. And I say this for all those (men and women) who never tire of saying that the facilities are obsolete. This is without failing to recognize the limitations of space and services that our hospital has.
Just behind the Materno Infantil Hospital, they are finishing the construction of the so-called pediatrics tower, a magnificent monographic hospital that will undoubtedly be a great advance for the healthcare of our autonomous community. According to the Ministry of Health, this work, along with the reform of the emergency services of the Dr. Negrín Hospital, will represent an investment of nearly one hundred million euros.
I am sure that the Materno Infantil Hospital will also be renovated soon and, as with all hospital renovations, it will not be necessary to completely evacuate it. Why is it necessary to close the Insular Hospital, which is on a plot of nearly ten thousand square meters, and move its activity to renovate it? Why is it not renovated in phases?
The Clinic Hospital of Barcelona, one of the most advanced and which receives patients from all over the world, was inaugurated in 1906. Despite being in a century-old building and located in the center of the city, it has been constantly remodeled in sections, managing to be one of the most specialized hospitals, with units and services that are at the forefront of healthcare in our country.
And I ask myself, why in a time of sound budgets and large investments, is the Government of the Canary Islands only thinking of closing the Insular Hospital for Lanzarote and moving it to a prefabricated building that needs a million euros to correct deficiencies? Wouldn't it be better to invest that million in rectifying the most important safety flaws of the Insular Hospital and commissioning a project for its renovation? Why is a definitive use being given to the Emerging Diseases Building, which was created to face a pandemic, when the question according to experts, is not whether there will be a new pandemic or not, but when it will be and how intense it will be?
It is regrettable how many of those who decide and opine in the public debate do not know the Insular Hospital, or have not worked there for decades. And yet, the professionals who face the situation every day and get the job done at that hospital are barely counted on, or are never summoned. I hear opinions that insist on continuing to chop up the Geriatrics Service, that jewel of health services. First they tried to justify the separation of the Geriatrics Day Hospital from the rest of the service, and now we hear talk of isolating the functional recovery unit and moving it along with socio-sanitary places. A similar experience was attempted in the hospitals in the north and south of Tenerife and after more than twenty years of management problems, now those hospitals only have sanitary beds, simply because the legislative framework is too complex and solving it through agreements will take decades to make the necessary adjustments for everything to work well.
But why do some insist on dismantling, shrinking, and experimenting with the service provided by the Insular Hospital, if the Lanzarote model is what it is and has been implemented for decades?
Because it is not just the stubbornness in closing the Insular Hospital. They say nothing will change with the transfer, but for three or four years, only difficulties have been placed on the normal performance of the service: a medical director or head of service for the Insular Hospital has not yet been appointed, despite it having one of the largest services, and yet other departments with far fewer associates have obtained these appointments. They allow the geriatricians who train here with so much intellectual and human effort to leave the island. Difficulties are being placed in granting the certifications that practitioners are entitled to, and when they do, their merits are undervalued. They have turned the stabilization process into a real drama and a labyrinth for loyal, committed, trained, and specialized nursing staff, who are forced to leave the island or accept substitute positions, after having worked as temporary staff for many years. What kind of stabilization is that? Why are they playing with people's livelihoods like this?
The Insular Hospital is a small but complete and specialized hospital, with hospitalization units, outpatient clinics, day hospital, functional recovery, pharmacy, laboratory, radiodiagnosis, administration, and its own general services. It plays a prominent role in the island's health services, trains specialized professionals, and most importantly: it has a very valuable human team, whose know-how, experience, and commitment are invaluable. Why doesn't the Ministry of Health, which is making so many millionaire investments on other islands, reform and improve it? Why does it put decisions about its future in the hands of strangers?
Why are our representatives only interested in the plot of land and the location? For a socio-health residence? Why does the Insular Hospital have to disappear to build a new residence for the elderly?
Are there no other plots of land on the island for that?
Lanzarote is the island that contributes the most per inhabitant to the Treasury of the Autonomous Community and one of those that receives the least investment per inhabitant. And it is good to be supportive. But the aging of the population does not stop and the island has grown by twenty thousand extra health cards in the last three years. However, the Government of the Canary Islands seems not to want to modernize, but rather pursues depriving us of our Insular Hospital. And it's not that we are overflowing with infrastructure. For not having it, we don't have a University Campus, schools like the Nursing school, of strategic importance, struggle to survive without sufficient resources and a lack of professors. The island's capital does not have an auditorium. Nor do we have a convention center, museums, or specialized cultural and educational centers. The large investments seem to be only for the other islands, and does Lanzarote only pay the bills?
Why, instead of eliminating resources, are the necessary investments not made to reform the Insular Hospital, modernize and expand the Molina Orosa, expand the health centers and build the ones that are missing, and ultimately provide the island with the necessary health infrastructure that it now lacks?
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