Lanzarote’s Hospital Insular, which specialises in care of the elderly, will close this summer. Although the closure is claimed to be temporary, there is no project for renovation of the premises yet.
The closure was announced by the Coalición Canaría’s General Secretary, Pedro San Ginés, Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort and Lanzarote Health Director Erasmo García at a press conference yesterday. Patients and staff will be transferred to the building for Emerging Diseases at the island’s main general hospital.
San Ginés stated that “our care of the elderly is not going to change” and guaranteed that no jobs would be lost. He also said that the 75-year-old hospital building, with gardens designed by César Manrique, was a listed building and would not be demolished.
However, whether it will ever return to its present function is up in the air. San Ginés announced that the Health Director would announce that decision later in the spring, bearing potential plans for a new “hospital city” in mind.
The Hospital Insular was the first on the island – the idea of Dr José Molina Orosa, the doctor who transformed healthcare on Lanzarote and in whose honour the current the much larger general hospital is named. It was officially opened by General Franco in 1950.
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