Ángel Víctor Torres visits the building annexed to the Juan Carlos I Hospital, which will serve covid patients

Ángel Víctor Torres visits the building annexed to the Juan Carlos I Hospital. / afi-press

health

Torres visited the three-storey annex building with 5,000 square meters and 95 hospital beds, which will also respond to health needs such as the island's waiting list

The island of Gran Canaria is closer to
reinforce their fight against covid and other emerging diseases. The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, visited this morning the new building annexed to the Juan Carlos I Hospital, dependent on the
University Hospital of Gran Canaria Doctor Negrínwhich is intended, precisely, to care for this type of ailment.

Torres has been accompanied, during the visit, by the Minister of Health of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo; by the director of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), Conrado Domínguez; and by the managers of the university hospitals of Gran Canaria Dr. Negrín and Insular, Pedro Rodríguez and Alejandra Torres, respectively.

The building in detail

The annex building, whose construction was completed in eight months, has
5,155 square meters distributed in
four floors: three above ground and a basement. The latter is «aimed, mainly, at what has to do with the management of medical waste; It will also allow the placement of a CT scan or diagnostic devices”, according to Conrado Domínguez.

At the same time, it has
95 hospital beds polyvalent, this means that, if necessary, a part could be converted into Intensive Care beds. The building also houses nine queries, five offices, an admission, training and medical and nursing work area, a laboratory, a Radiology area, warehouses, hotel and maintenance services.

One of the great characteristics of the sanitary installation is its
sustainable character. According to the Minister of Health, Blas Trujillo, it is the "first installation of a health building" in the Canary Islands, in which "a system of
efficient energy production». In this way, a set of photovoltaic panels will cover 15% of the "energy consumption of the building", Trujillo has added.

The counselor has also valued the set of sealed compartments that the facility has, as well as the “ex profeso” ventilation to prevent the air from mixing and the “different circuits for waste disposal”.

Finally, he clarified that the works on the property have already been completed and that all the facilities - telecommunications or water - are pending. The total budget for the works amounts to
€14.5 million.

The annex building is expected
Come in up and running after summeras well as employing a hundred professionals, both newly hired and relocated.

Decongestion of central hospitals

With this initiative, the Government of the Canary Islands seeks to be
more prepared in the futuredue to the possible infectious diseases that may emerge, as has happened with the
covid.

Thus, the building annexed to the Juan Carlos I Hospital will help free up the beds of the university hospitals in Gran Canaria - the Insular-Maternal-Child Hospital and the Doctor Negrín Hospital - occupied by covid patients and, consequently, decongest the waiting lists and
speed up surgical interventionsamong others, as pointed out by Ángel Víctor Torres, who described the completion of the works on this property as "magnificent news".

The Canarian president has considered that this is the line that must be followed, henceforth, in the face of possible
spikes in covid infectionslike the one
is experiencing the archipelago right now. "What is there to do? Buildings like this, clearly commit to it and do it in the shortest possible time", Torres pointed out, while specifying that "we are facing a normal situation in which we have to live with covid".
“The key is vaccination”has insisted.

In addition, he wanted to emphasize that this annex "is going to alleviate waiting lists" and that "it complements in an efficient and necessary way the work that is done in large hospitals."

The threat of events

For his part, the director of the SCS, Conrado Domínguez, has pointed out that, before the street carnival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or the summer events, the Canary Health Service does not show concern, but "occupation".

«We are, in some way, monitoring all the processes that are taking place with covid. We must continue with the measures, so to speak, of individual protection of each one; us
we trust in the responsibility of citizens. Right now there has been no uptick associated with these massive events », he pointed out.

More projects on other islands

The Government of the Canary Islands has not only promoted this project to allocate new beds to covid patients and reinforce care in central hospitals. In total, they will be enabled
342 beds on the islands of Gran Canaria (those annexed to the Juan Carlos I Hospital), Lanzarote and Tenerife,which represents the largest increase in public beds in the last decade, as defended by the Canarian president. The initiative will require a
investment of €47 million.