Thousands March to Defend Arrecife’s Hospital Insular

Around 7,000 people took part in the “White Tide” demonstration against the closure of the Hospital Insular in Arrecife yesterday, according to local police.

Thousands of protesters wearing white gathered on Arrecife’s seafront before marching around the Charco de San Ginés to the Hospital Insular building, chanting, banging saucepans and blowing conch shells.

At the historic building, which is the only specialised geriatric hospital on the Canary Islands, speakers called for “a real commitment to its maintenance, modernization, and renovation; through a defined project, with an adequate budget and a binding schedule.”

The Canarian Government has proposed the closure of the hospital this summer, with the transfer of patients and services to the multi-purpose building located opposite the Emergency department at the general hospital in Argana Alta. However, there are no concrete plans for this project, and no indication that the Hospital insular will ever be re-opened.

The Hospital insular was the first major hospital on the island when it was opened in 1950, and was one of the crowning achievements of Dr José Molina Orosa, whose statue stands in central Arrecife. A sculpture created by César Manrique in honour of the doctor also stands outside the Hospital Insular itself.