Hospital del Sur Delay Prompts Socialist Demand for Beds
The Socialist Group on the island council is demanding temporary hospital beds and urging the acceleration of the delayed Hospital del Sur expansion in Arona, citing concerns for over 400,000 residents and a stalled 2022 agreement.
The ongoing delay in expanding Hospital del Sur in El Mojón, Arona, has prompted the Socialist Group on the island council to demand temporary measures to add more hospital beds. This request will be discussed at the Cabildo's next full meeting and highlights concerns for the health of over 400,000 local residents. The socialists say their health cannot wait any longer.
Socialist spokesperson Aarón Afonso has urged the Cabildo to take the lead in making sure this project gets built. He also demanded that the Canary Islands Government quickly start the health and social care projects linked to the hospital. Afonso pointed out that an agreement was signed in 2022. This agreement included combining a social care facility already started by the Cabildo, transferring land for an attached centre, and setting aside over 40 million euros in the 2023 regional budget. However, two and a half years into the current government's term, there has been no real progress on either the hospital expansion or the social care centre.
On the 11th, the Canary Islands Health Service finally put out a tender (a call for bids) for the basic design and first phase of the project. This happened after a period where, according to the PSOE, no work had even started on it. The socialists believe this step is due to pressure from the Platform for a Public Hospital in the South and Southwest of Tenerife, and calls for new public protests. The project, budgeted at 1,097,245 euros and expected to take ten months, involves finishing two existing building sections, adding Critical Care, Hemodynamics, and a new Hospitalization Unit. It will also expand and update the surgical block and areas like Emergency, Outpatient Consultations, and Diagnostic Imaging. New pathways will also be built to make the hospital run more smoothly overall.
At the next full meeting, the Socialist Group will ask the Cabildo president to step in actively and publicly. They want him to use his political and institutional power to influence the regional government, ensuring the 2022 agreement is fully met. They will also urge the Canary Islands Government to speed up administrative processes and provide the necessary funds to carry out the work that has now been put out to tender.