The heat has forced the suspension of all surgical activity at the Hospital del Norte in Tenerife, a facility attached to the Hospital Universitario de Canarias (HUC). Just days after the HUC suffered a technical failure in the air conditioning of its operating theatres, the Hospital del Norte has followed suit. The district hospital has suffered a breakdown that has left the two day-surgery theatres (cirugía mayor ambulatoria, CMA) without air conditioning. This time, however, the failure has been caused by the heat and humidity.
No cancellations but a brake on new surgery
The problem has not led to the cancellation of any procedures because none had yet been scheduled. However, it has brought a halt to the planning of new operations until further notice. That is according to the hospital’s management, which insists the fault occurred today and was “isolated”. It also states that technical services are already working to resolve it. Staff at the Hospital del Norte have told this newspaper, however, that the breakdown actually happened a week ago and that, as a result, no planning has taken place.
The HUC management hopes to resolve the problem “as quickly as possible”, given that this hospital carries out an average of 2,000 operations a year and is therefore vital for relieving the pressure on the HUC. Management points to the high temperatures that Tenerife experienced last week as the cause of the failure. The intense heat – with maximums reaching 34 degrees in nearby municipalities such as San Juan de la Rambla – combined with humidity in the air, has knocked out the climate control system.
Strict conditions for operating theatres
It is worth remembering that the correct functioning of operating theatres requires carefully controlled cold conditions to keep microbes at bay, improve the performance of the surgical team and protect technological equipment from potential overheating. For that reason, the air conditioning must be kept at a range of between 17 and 23 degrees, with a relative humidity of between 40 and 60 per cent.
Similar incident at the HUC days earlier
Just five days ago, a similar situation occurred at the main HUC facilities. However, that technical fault was resolved because, while it lasted, HUC surgeons carried out their operations at the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria instead. The problem may be the same in terms of effects, but the cause was different. While the Hospital del Norte’s failure was down to the heat, in the HUC’s case it was the result of human error during the transfer of electrical panels.
Moreover, in the HUC’s case, the situation forms part of a long-running project to improve its electrical capacity, with an investment of nearly five million euros. Not for nothing has the hospital’s electrical panel been in service for four decades, and in recent years the demand for energy has far exceeded the electrical capacity. In 2024, the hospital’s electricity supply was in a precarious state, with energy demand outstripping supply. The current management – during the period in which it was led by Adasat Goya, now the director of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) – revived a project from 2019 to renew the electricity supply, and last year four transformer substations were installed to relieve the demand.
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Thursday: stable summer weather across the Islands
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Wednesday: mixed clouds and warm Atlantic
Tuesday: Blue skies and summer heat across the Islands
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Monday: sunny spells and a moderate breeze
Sunday: clouds, cooler temps, possible drizzle
