The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, yesterday asked the Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, “to tell us what day we meet to deliver the building and end the debate and announcements about a south hospital in which you see very little progress”.
Martín thus responded to the statements made by the regional head of Health, who last week announced in Parliament that the Canary Islands Health Service will undertake the expansion of the South Hospital, in El Mojon (Arona), with the aim of turning it into a third-level center like La Candelaria or the Universitario.
Trujillo announced that a new building will be built, through an addendum to the agreement with the Cabildo, which will allow the surface of the current center to be increased by 20,000 square meters and another 8,000 to reorganize the spaces, until reaching a total extension of 47,000 square meters. . The infrastructure will involve an investment of 40 million euros.
Pedro Martín demands to accelerate the project and specify the deadlines as soon as possible to carry out the works: “What interests us now is to know dates, we need not to make announcements but to get down to work and sign an agreement for the Cabildo to deliver a building that can double the Hospital del Sur”.
The president of the Cabildo insisted on summoning the Minister of Health to “tell us what day and what time we meet in the South for the delivery of that property, and from there we will be able to tell southern society and Tenerife as a whole that by finally the Hospital del Sur is going to be a reality”. Martín stressed that promoting El Mojón means “unloading” patients to the large hospitals in the metropolitan area, “so it will benefit the entire island.”
The mayors of the South, consulted by DIARIO DE AVISOS, are generally satisfied with Blas Trujillo’s announcement, although they ask for agility in the procedures. José Julián Mena (PSOE), mayor of Arona, stressed that having the same portfolio of services as the Santa Cruz-La Laguna metropolitan area is a “historic claim of the region”, but asked that the counselor’s explanations “be translated into facts and real investments”. Mena indicated that “it is key that our neighbors do not have to move to La Candelaria or the HUC.”
José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga (PSOE), councilor of Adeje, thanked the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo for the great southern health demand. “They have fulfilled a promise that was made three years ago and that will finally provide the South with a necessary infrastructure and that will improve the lives of thousands of people. It has much merit that in just three years a situation has been redirected that in decades nobody knew or wanted to solve, “said Rodríguez Fraga. More critical was the mayor of Granadilla de Abona, José Domingo Regalado (CC), after listening to Councilor Blas Trujillo: “Faced with these types of announcements, there is only disbelief, we will continue to wait and see how those who were going to change everything do not change anything ”. Regalado believes that it is “another announcement by the current councilor a year before the elections without today having a real hospital in the South.”
His party colleague, Arturo González, councilor of San Miguel de Abona, prefers to see the glass half full, but is convinced that the project is going to take a long time: “In principle, it is good news that the Government of the Canary Islands understands that the South , due to its population, it deserves a reference hospital like those in the metropolitan area, but another thing is that this desire, which we all share, materializes as soon as possible, because it goes a long way from saying to doing; so wait.”
Emilio Navarro (PP), mayor of Santiago del Teide, described the forecasts of the Ministry of Health as “good news”, as it is a “historic demand that affects 300,000 people who reside in this part of the island, plus the population float that we receive”. After emphasizing that the South has been demanding a hospital for “too much time”, he indicated that “now, what is needed is that the announcement be transferred to the drafting of the project and the work be carried out as soon as possible.”
For Josefa Mesa (PSOE), councilor of Guía de Isora, the Executive’s intention to improve and expand the regional hospital responds to the “great population increase” in this area of the island, for which she applauds the decision. “In cases such as the Iora Guide, this trend is beginning to be noticed again after the stoppage of the pandemic, which implies adapting and launching new infrastructures.”
Agustina Beltrán (PSOE), mayor of Villaflor de Chasna, described the project to expand the hospital as “great news for the South and the entire Island” and thanked the former Minister of Health Teresa Cruz for her “impulse” so that the center has All the services. “Hopefully it won’t take another 20 years to see it,” she concluded.
One year after the opening of the first operating theaters
After more than 30 years claiming a public hospital in the South, the first operating theaters began operating in April of last year for “minimally invasive” ophthalmological interventions. From then on, operations were extended to other specialties: Gynaecology, General Surgery, Traumatology, Dermatology and Urology, the last to be incorporated into the hospital’s portfolio of services. The Ministry of Health plans to add in the “short term” the services of Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery. The new building will allow the incorporation of Intensive Care Units (ICU) for adults and pediatrics, a specific Pediatrics area, a Dialysis service and the expansion of the surgical area.
