A key strategic objective for the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) this legislature is for citizens to receive most specialized healthcare on their island of residence. Inter-island travel will be reserved for high-complexity procedures requiring reference hospitals, thereby ensuring the quality and safety of care.
The SCS's comprehensive strategy focuses on two main areas: bringing care closer through digital tools like telemedicine, hospital teleconsultation, and virtual interconsultation, while reinforcing diagnostic circuits; and deploying specialists via reinforcement plans to enhance local resolution capacity. This year, reinforcement plans have increased from 39 to 56, a 44 percent rise.
On the non-capital islands, all SCS hospitals are now equipped with MRI machines. In El Hierro, medical and radiation oncology, and Rheumatology have been added, along with high-resolution clinics. The Nuestra Señora de los Reyes Hospital has acquired an MRI scanner, which will prevent approximately eight hundred patients annually from having to travel to Tenerife.
The Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Hospital in La Gomera has strengthened its resources, hosting specialists from fourteen specialties. From January to June this year, 7,503 patients were treated in 9,007 consultations through reinforcement plans. Diagnostic tests performed avoided the displacement of 4,083 patients.
The University Hospital of La Palma combines telemedicine and reinforcement plans, incorporating complex procedures such as Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and advanced lithotripsy techniques. The center reduced patient transfers by 4.8 percent in 2025.
The General Hospital of Fuerteventura has introduced new techniques and equipment, including the first parotidectomy with neuromonitorization in Otorhinolaryngology. It has also added high-value units like radiation oncology and hemodynamic cardiology, the latter seeing an 85.8 percent increase in activity in 2025.
In Lanzarote, the Doctor José Molina Orosa University Hospital has expanded its service portfolio, reducing patient transfers by nearly a thousand between 2022 and 2025. Radiation oncology has seen a decrease in transferred patients from 649 in 2022 to 235 in 2025. Techniques such as eco-endoscopies, ERCP, cardiac MRI, and robotic surgery have been implemented.
Furthermore, daily allowances for accommodation and maintenance for patients and their companions requiring healthcare on another island have been increased by 41.18 percent. The accommodation allowance rises from 65.97 to 106.94 euros, and maintenance from 37.40 to 39 euros, totaling 145.94 euros per person per day.
