The new nursing home Garachicoequipped with 100 residential places, will cost about 9 million euros, according to the forecast of the basic and execution project recently carried out by the Island Council of Tenerife. This socio-health center is an old desire of the municipality, which aspires to transfer the current Our Lady of the Conception Nursing Home Hospital to much larger and more adequate facilities to attend to the elderly dependents of the region. The mayor of Garachico, Jose Heriberto Gonzalez (CC)welcomes the involvement of the insular president, Pedro Martin (PSOE)“which has fulfilled its commitment with the publication of a document that is the first step for the bidding of the construction works of the building”.
The Municipality of Garachico had ceded in March 2021 to the Cabildo de Tenerife a plot of 3,400 square meters for the construction of this new municipal geriatric residence, which will be equipped with 100 residential places and 15 day centers. Gonzalez and Peter Martin then formalized before a notary the transfer of a plot of land the urbanization El Lamerovery close to the current center.
That land, which is next to the sports hallwill house a building with a capacity for 100 beds for the elderly with second and third degree of recognized dependency. Only the drafting of the technical project cost about 500,000 euros.
The municipality hopes to increase the number of places for elderly dependents from 41 to 100
The transfer of the land was a decisive step for the future construction of the new social and health center in Garachico, which is now a little closer with the publication of the technical and execution document. For the local government (CC), the transfer of the municipal nursing home is an urgent need because the characteristics of the current hospital, housed in a 16th century building which cannot be expanded or adapted to the needs of its residents, has been an obstacle in caring for the elderly for decades. Due to its configuration, the building cannot house more than 41 residents.
The transfer of all the activity of the Hospital Nuestra Señora de la Concepción to a new building, “fully adapted to current demands and located very close to the current one”, would mean a great improvement in the care and services that can be offered to the elderly the low island. A dream for Garachico that is now a little closer thanks to the involvement of the Cabildo de Tenerife.
The departure of the nuns from the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul, at the end of 2012, plunged this municipal geriatric center into years of crisis and serious economic difficulties that were about to end in a definitive closure in 2015. The work of the nuns had to be supplemented with professionals and only the hiring of a medical and nursing service generated an expenditure of more than 130,000 euros per year. An increase in costs that the City Council had to cover, which has an annual budget of just 4.7 million euros, with extraordinary contributions.
The support of the Cabildo, through the Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS), was key to avoid disappearance. The increase in the number of concerted places avoided the disaster of a center that has gone from receiving 642,129 euros from island and regional funds in 2015 to 1,415,887 euros in 2020.
The Nursing Home Hospital Our Lady of the Conceptionwhose management depends directly on the Municipality of Garachico, has now returned to the path of economic balance with several years of surpluses and savings that allow us to look to the future with much more optimism. The new building, whose cost exceeds 9 million euros, would increase the number of places available by 143%.
