“Santa Rita must change management and administrative structure.” Assures it Pedro Martin, president of the Cabildo, on the largest geriatric center in the Canary Islands and one of the largest in Spain, with the capacity to serve more than 600 people. It considers that important changes should be made in the direction of this subsidized center after the Government of the Canary Islands detected serious irregularities.
Outbreaks of scabies, malnutrition, dehydration and shortage and lack of control in meals. These are the deficiencies cited by professionals in the Our Lady of Candelaria University Hospital (Hunsc) at Hogar Santa Rita (Puerto de la Cruz), after taking over the nursing home at the end of last year, to try to stop an outbreak of Covid-19 which closed with more than 200 positives and a score of deaths. Radio Club Tenerife unveiled the report, prepared a few days after the Ministry of Health ordered, on December 8, 2020, the intervention of this residence due to the increase in cases of Covid-19. The information was transferred to the regional Council for Social Rights, the Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation and the insular councilor for Social Action, Marián Franquet, warned that the Cabildo would act without hiding behind the lack of powers.
«Santa Rita has to change. The Cabildo of Tenerife does a follow-up, but only to those people who have arranged through the total or partial financing of their place, not to all those housed there, because, simply, we do not have powers in the inspection and control to be able to carry out inspections “, explained Pedro Martín , who pointed out: “If we did, they could deny us based on legality precisely because we do not have those powers.”
The president of the Cabildo clarified that the Insular Corporation “is not part of the management of the center or of the board of trustees.” «But what has been evidenced after the reports released to the public opinion, as well as by the work done by the Canary Islands Health Service, is that this center has to change its management and it will also be necessary to analyze if, in his case, it is necessary to request responsibilities of the type that they are, “added Martín. The same sentence: «What has happened in Santa Rita cannot be forgotten. Both the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo have to get involved and, in our case, we will be there to the extent that we are asked for collaboration “.
Disturbing answer
The response of those responsible for the private board that runs the Hogar Santa Rita to the Health reports has created much concern in the Cabildo and the Canarian Government. The managing director of the center, Tomás Villar, has even affirmed that health incidents such as the outbreak of scabies registered in the residence they are “something innate in human life”, or that the information regarding the conclusive official reports of the regional Executive is “a hoax.”
The secretary general of the Federation of Public Service Employees of the UGT, Fran Bautista, has asked the Cabildo to “immediately” take over the management of the Santa Rita Home “before something even more serious happens.” After knowing the reports of the Canarian Government, which allude to an outbreak of scabies and nutrition and hydration problems among some residents at the end of 2020, this UGT leader considers that “there are plenty of arguments” for the island administration to take control of the control of this nursing home “For the good of workers, residents and their families.”
UGT understands that the only way out of the situation in Santa Rita is for the Cabildo “to get to work on its intervention to give security to workers and, above all, to the elderly, who they deserve to live in the best way». The union has filed complaints with the Labor Inspectorate, which have ended in the Prosecutor’s Office, for the outbreaks of scabies, “which are not from now, but have been repeated since 2015, 2016 or 2017,” concluded Bautista.
