«In order to finally have a Social and Health Infrastructure Plan, in these two and a half years of mandate in the Cabildo we have had to unravel an enormous skein of difficulties of all kinds, from urban planning, in terms of land planning, to the facilities ». This is confirmed by the island councilor for Social Action, Marián Franquet, who expects to have 444 residential places in the next two years. This first phase includes six centers – out of a total of 18 – distributed throughout the island, the result of newly created works or extensions. They will ease the wait of more than 7,000 people, elderly or dependent, who opt for the resource.
The data.
Franquet defends the work of his area. Specifically, the creation of 1,509 social-health places within the framework of the Dependency Law, 28% more than before, as of 2019 when the current government team arrived at the Cabildo. He explains: «Not all of them are residential and services for home care must be included there, a model we are committed to, such as family respite, dual pathology or telecare, where we have gone from zero today to 752 users» . To this must be added “the 551 planned for this year, with an 8% increase over the previous year.” Marián Franquet details the state of administrative processing of the 24 centers included in the original Social and Health Infrastructure Plan. Endowed in total with 90 million euros, “although the increase in cost prices has already turned them into much more.” He warns the Social Action counselor that “in the first two years of the Plan’s validity, only six projects had been put out to tender.” He also emphasizes that “in the years 2018 and 2019 none of the 1,231 positions planned were created and, for this reason, we have had to face that deficit that we have dragged on in this mandate.”
fifteen
Millions of euros
- The specific figure is 15,063,989 euros. The planned investment for the six priority works in these two years will culminate in a total of 443 residential social and health places.
The Heritage.
Franquet criticizes the “inheritance received from the decades of government of the Canarian Coalition.” He highlights in this sense “the double waiting list that existed to obtain a public place”, the lack of human resources or a phantom Infrastructure Plan. This dates from 2017 «without concrete planning or organization; it even lacked a study on dependency needs on the Island». He stresses that “we had to redefine everything, including the model to follow.”
As for the social and health centers on the Island, of the 24 scheduled, “six are, today, practically unfeasible,” says Franquet. Specifically, those of Anaga, La Guancha, the Metropolitan Area in La Laguna, Jesús de Nazaret Residence (Icod de los Vinos), San Miguel de Abona and Tacoronte.
priority.
There are 18 facilities left and six of them are more advanced. “Completing them is a priority objective for the next two years with an investment of more than 15 million euros.” The PSOE counselor adds: “This has caused us to have to start from scratch in many cases and spend hours undoing wrongs.” To begin with, “cover the head of the service in charge of managing the Plan, in addition to human and material reinforcement.” Even, she values her, “3.5 million euros were spent on drafting projects without us knowing the selection criteria.”
The counselor sentences: «From December 2017 to June 2019 only the execution of CAMP La Cuesta had begun». She adds: «A work that stops due to discrepancies with the successful bidder». The reason; “A reckless low of book”. It has been resolved “so as not to reach a judicialization that would have eternalized the project.” Another example that stands out: «In Guía de Isora they forgot to write the industrial part and they sell us the center as ready to furnish and for the elderly to enter; yes, without the possibility of having machinery or the elevator working because, simply, there was no electricity. Third sample: «In Anaga (Santa Cruz) a center is planned in a space that was a school, not yet disaffected; It will be very difficult to locate it.
“You don’t have to stick to the residential model, our option is home care”
Advances.
Along the same lines, Franquet referred to other centers with important advances, such as the one in Garachico and the Residence for people with autism in La Laguna (it will be managed by Apanate), where the problems of transfer of land that existed have been unblocked. Two centers are in the process of being awarded and will make it possible to reinforce coverage in the North and South. Abades, in Arico, with capacity for 76 residential places and a budget of 3.5 million; and the expansion of the Santa Úrsula, which includes 70 new places and a budget of 534,312 euros. In addition, it has been possible to unblock the problems of the CAMP de La Cuesta, whose new project – endowed with 5 million euros and 70 places – is in the drafting phase. Just like the one in the Arona Center.
Another thirteen initiatives already have drafting. Among them, the Buenavista Disability Residence, the Candelaria center, the Granadilla center, the La Laguna Trisomy Association, the expansion of the La Matanza Senior Center or the Santísima Trinidad (La Orotava), with a problem of Urbanistic planning. Without forgetting the one in La Victoria, the Febles Campos II –curious, when the new Febles Campos I is pending–, the one in Añaza (with fewer places, 202, from the initial macrocenter of 700), and the one in the New Residence for the Elderly Ofra (17.4 million and 205 places).
