The union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) has denounced this Tuesday the lack of climate adaptation of the main building of the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC), located in Tenerife, especially on the upper floors, where during heat episodes they reach “up to 40 degrees” .
In a statement, CCOO recalled that it is a construction that dates back to the 70s of the last century that, “after countless patches, small renovations and facelifts, can no longer hold up.”
For the union, it is a building that lacks the conditions required today for a minimally comfortable and dignified stay for the patients treated here.
“In the rooms – especially on the upper floors – temperatures are reached in summer that are around or exceed 40º. And with heat waves becoming more frequent and lasting, the problem is no longer limited to the summer months, but rather occurs at any time of the year,” he points out.
The union organization has highlighted that, after a multitude of complaints, requests and claims by unions, patients, and workers, the Canary Islands Government had committed to making an investment that, “if it did not resolve, at least alleviated the situation, since it An air conditioning installation for the entire building, given its characteristics and obsolescence, was technically impossible.”
However, according to the union’s account, after a project worth 300,000 euros was carried out to air-condition the upper floors at a cost of two million euros, and once the work had been tendered and awarded, the project was suspended “without known cause and with the consequent compensation to the winning company, close to 200,000 euros,” CCOO stated.
“Given what seems impossible to resolve in any other way, we have chosen to urge the intervention of the Common Deputy, as guarantor of the defense of the rights of Canarian citizens, for which we have proceeded to collect the signatures of more than 900 workers of the center, and accompany the written complaint and request with them,” he concludes.
