What changes for tourists and residents in the holiday resorts?
For tourists and European residents in Playa Blanca, Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise or Playa Honda, the submission of the plan changes nothing for now. The plan is a technical planning instrument, not a construction or funding decision.
No new access conditions, fees, reimbursement rules, deadlines or closures have been announced. According to the published information, the plan also contains no application or entitlement procedures.
Anyone needing medical help can continue to use the existing facilities as before. These include the Hospital Universitario Doctor José Molina Orosa, the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote as well as health centres and local GP practices.
What is the Plan Director de Infraestructuras Sanitarias?
The Plan Director de Infraestructuras Sanitarias is a strategic planning document for the health infrastructure of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. It is intended to determine future needs for outpatient primary care and hospital care.
The time horizon is 20 years to 2044.
It includes the expected resident population and various scenarios for the temporarily present population.
It examines the expansion capacity of existing facilities, planning law, available plots of land, estimated investment costs and demographic development.
Why is San Bartolomé requesting the plan?
The Ayuntamiento of San Bartolomé has formally asked the health administration, the Gerencia de Servicios Sanitarios and the Consejería de Sanidad to send the plan. Mayor Isidro Pérez said municipalities must be sufficiently informed about decisions affecting their services and their local planning.
The municipality is particularly concerned about the new health centre in Playa Honda. The project is affected by the plan's forward estimates and is being delayed, Crónicas de Lanzarote reports.
Pérez criticised the fact that Coalición Canaria had made aspects of the document public while the affected municipalities had not officially received it. Health planning must be approached with transparency, information and coordination between administrations.
Which facilities are affected by the plan?
The scope includes the Hospital Universitario Doctor José Molina Orosa, the Hospital Insular de Lanzarote, health centres and local GP practices.
Its future role, however, is assessed within the overall plan for the island.
The responsible technical management presented it together with the management of the Lanzarote health area and the island's departmental heads. For La Graciosa, it is relevant that the island is expressly included in long-term infrastructure planning.
However, no specific new facility, additional surgery hours, transport arrangement or date for improvements on La Graciosa has been set.
What remains open and what happens next?
The plan must be validated institutionally and administratively. After that, specific functional programmes, priorities and a step-by-step timetable are to be established.
Implementation depends on available budget funds, the operational capacity of the health system and medical need. No binding date has been given for final approval, individual construction projects, tenders or the start of building work.
Also still open are the specific measures for La Graciosa, the investment sums of the overall plan and possible effects on existing facilities. The Ayuntamiento of San Bartolomé expects the requested documentation to be sent as soon as possible.