The Health Department of the Canary Islands Government has launched a Early Attention Unit at the South Tenerife Hospital with the aim of bringing healthcare closer to this area of the island. A multidisciplinary team of paediatric professionals assists children with developmental disorders as well as improving the range of services available to the public. The regional president, Fernando Clavijo, accompanied by the Island Council, Rosa Dávila, and the department’s councillor, Esther Monzón, visited the new healthcare facility today, which began operations on 18 June. In just under a month of operation, it already caters to nearly a hundred children. It provides outpatient and individualised care for children aged between 0 and 6 who have these disorders, disabilities, or are at risk of developing them and dependency.
Clavijo highlighted during the visit, which also included members of the Pro South Hospital Platform, that with this new unit, not only are healthcare resources being enhanced but the creation of the third unit planned for Tenerife is being fulfilled. Additionally, healthcare is being brought closer to around a hundred families in this area who, from now on, will no longer have to travel to Santa Cruz for their children’s necessary care. This new unit joins the other two that already exist on the island, at the HUC and La Candelaria. The Early Attention Units have assisted 4,784 children in Canary Islands since the first units were established in 2020. Currently, they are treating 400 children between the ages of 0 and 6 in Tenerife.
Three on the Island
Dávila, the council president, emphasised the institutional commitment to children and families in the south of the island and pointed out that this unit is the result of collaborative work between administrations to ensure comprehensive, effective care with a community perspective. Councillor Monzón explained that the Early Attention Unit is made up of professionals in Clinical Psychology, Speech Therapy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Educational Guidance, and Social Work. Its organisation focuses on developing an Individualised Early Attention Plan (PIAT), which establishes personalised objectives for each child and their surroundings, ensuring the most appropriate intervention. According to the councillor, this allows for a biopsychosocial and individualised approach that considers the context, family, and available resources.
The spokesperson for the Pro South Hospital Platform, Jordi Esplugas, highlighted the establishment of this Early Attention Unit as a fundamental step in completing the healthcare centre that the south of the island deserves and in responding to the needs of paediatric patients and their families. With this new unit, the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) has launched a total of eleven in recent years; of which three are in Gran Canaria, three in Tenerife, and one in each non-capital island.
Functions
The professionals who work in Early Attention Units focus particularly on the motor, perceptive-cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional skills of patients. Their responsibilities include functional assessment and diagnosis, direct intervention with the child and their family, as well as advising schools and community agents. They also carry out inter-institutional coordination with health, educational, and social services, along with promoting awareness, training, and research in early attention. Interventions in the early years of childhood can be decisive in preventing and addressing all possible needs, whether cognitive, emotional, social, sensory, or motor.
Resources
This new Early Attention Unit strengthens the services provided by the South Hospital to the population of that basic health area. In 2024, it handled 128,087 consultations, performed 3,870 surgical interventions, assisted 59,564 urgent cases, and administered 3,793 treatments in day hospitals. The centre also conducted functional and radiological tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of conditions affecting the population in South Tenerife.
Other functions
In 2024, the Oncological Day Hospital began operations, as well as the expansion of the Pharmacy service and the addition of Paediatrics and Clinical Nutrition services. The South Hospital offers major outpatient surgery, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and hospitalisation for patients requiring inpatient care.
Palliative Care
During the first months of 2025, the Palliative Care Unit was launched, along with new techniques for bladder and breast cancer. With the latest added services, the South Hospital currently has outpatient consultations for eighteen medical and surgical specialities.
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