The president of San Roque Hospitals, Mario Rodriguez,  the corporate director of Development and Hospital San Roque Maspalomas manager Sebastian Sansó, last Friday presented the operational start of their new 24 hour pediatric emergency service.

From Wednesday August 1, at 08:00 hours, the service was launched with public assistance coverage for all children between 0 and 14 years old, as part of the assistance agreement with the Canary Islands Health Service.

The implementation of this service has been successfully completed after two years of work due to the lack of specialists in Pediatrics having delayed the project. In practice, the new service covers a health area that includes ​​Vecindario to the municipality of La Aldea de San Nicolás, and the entire population of the south of the island that have not had, until now, specialists in pediatrics to ensure the health care of minors, with cases previously having had to be sent to the Insular Maternity Hospital Complex in Las Palmas.

This is therefore an area of ​​specialisation and real need which has led Hospitales San Roque to make every effort to realise a leading endowment with medical and nursing staff of first order, in a dedicated facility open 24 hours a day, 7 days of the week, and 365 days of the year, for specialist pediatric assistance.

The unit covers a space of 300 meters squares with magnificent views, lots of natural light, with inspired decoration dedicated to the little ones.

The new 24h Pediatric Emergency Service will be staffed by on average 10 pediatricians. Four of them will be employed specifically by San Roque Hospitals, while the other 6 will provide required services to ensure full coverage at all times. The Nursing area will have 9 professionals, along with a compliment of 6 clinical assistants. The team is to be completed with six administrative assistants and a translation and interpretation service foreign patients. The organisation of the service has been designed so that at scheduled times of least demand a pediatrician and a pediatric traumatologist will always be on duty, while during the hours of greatest demand there will always be at least two pediatricians and a pediatric traumatologist.

To make the waiting time more pleasant for children, in addition to television, the waiting room will have tablets and games for the little ones, who may be distracted a bit from whatever health problem they are suffering.