It has been privatised for at least 20 years. The car parks in shopping centres are free but for the islanders in the south of Gran Canaria, where the economic capital of the island is located, going to the Materno Insular hospital complex out of necessity costs an arm and a leg to pay to the French company that manages the area, not to mention the crime and organised crime in the area surrounding the complex.
These prices are exorbitant for a health service, especially considering that a hospital is not a place of leisure like Meloneras. Paying almost one euro per minute, more than 18 euros for a full day or 51 euros for a week to be in a medical centre is a figure that is difficult to justify for most people. These are rates that put access to health at risk, especially for those with limited resources, and that distort the idea that health is a fundamental right.
The socialist deputy Miguel Ángel del Pino posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, criticising the French company Parkia, saying that it is unacceptable that an essential service such as health should have such a high cost, making hospitals inaccessible to many. And the users of the network gave him a hard time after finding out about these facts first-hand, having used that service. The messages have come to say that these exorbitant rates make a stay in a hospital a luxury that is within the reach of only a few, which calls into question the principle of equity in access to health. The setting of these prices borders on the abusive, since they are charging for a service that should be guaranteed by the health system, regardless of the economic capacity of each person. A user of X has told him: "Realising this when you were governing was more difficult"
