Thomas Villarmanaging director of Home Santa Ritathe largest geriatric residence in the Canary Islands, is summoned in a personal capacity to testify on the morning of this Friday, March 11, in the Court of First Instance and Instruction Number 2 of Puerto de la Cruz as investigated by the complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged irregularities detected by the staff of the Canary Health Service (SCS) who took over the management of this nursing home in the worst moments of the pandemic. Villar will have to answer questions related to outbreaks of Covid-19 and scabies, cases of malnutrition and dehydration and scarcity and lack of control in meals, facts that could constitute crimes of ill-treatment and even reckless homicide. However, in a recent 40-minute speech to many of the nearly 427 workers at this center, whose recording has transpired, Villar considers that he does not go to testify alone or personally but on behalf of the entire staff. He literally claims that “We are all going to testify in court as investigators. Everyone. Absolutely everyone. And they are going to tell us that we are abusers, that we starve the residents and that they are malnourished. That we allow scabies. Let’s all go even though the person who will be there is me. And I will stand up for you”.
Villar defended in this public intervention on February 23, as revealed by Ser, the management of the Santa Rita Homewhich he again described as “luxury hotel for the poor”, since the time of Father Antonio. He called for more unity among workers in defense of their jobs, which he believes are threatened by a possible reduction in the number of residential places: “If we are 500 residents, we will need 450 workers; if we are 600, we will need 500, but if we are 300, we will only need 250. That is the impairment and the pain that floods us, but we are going to fight against it.” And he asked them to go “all together, like in Fuenteovejuna”who are involved in defending the center “to consolidate it” and prevent “The unbridled senseless attacks by official bodies and other bodies. Or from people who, protected by anonymity they behave like piranhas They hurt little by little.”
The head of the Home Santa Rita attributed the health intervention to “an error of the general hospital” when “They told a colleague, with names and surnames, that he was negative and he was positive. They got confused and that partner was in a zone of influence. That had special relevance and led to the famous health intervention on December 8 ”. In addition, he justified several of the irregularities detected by the nursing home’s own intervention: “They told us that all the colleagues had to leave Fray Leopoldo’s building and that led to 90 left and 30 came, which generated a very big fuss in the service, in the work of providing food and in everything else. Personnel were sent, but it was not enough. The confusion was enormous and what came of it, because the patients were ill, malnourished, dehydrated and that they all had scabies. Big mistake. If they had asked us, we would have told them things. They had little deference towards this management and this board of trustees that they only addressed the president of the works council, which I see well. But they didn’t even ask for the director to talk to him.”
“The big mistake of that health service was to confine the residents for two months”
“This has led to the fact that we are abusers, we kill people with hunger, we do not give them anything to drink and we allow scabies, scabies. And that we have to swallow and we are pending how we are going to counteract it. The big mistake of that health service was to confine residents for two months, despite our supervisors’ request that they at least be let out into the hallway. From the armchair to the bed or from the bed to the bed. This generated bedsores, cognitive damage and lack of mobility. And they have to know that. We are not a hospital. And this situation also alarmed families when they saw their relatives on video calls. And instead of asking us for our opinion, they slaughtered usVillar said.
He blamed the legal situation of the board of directors of Hogar Santa Rita to “spurious interests that we do not know where they come from”, although he hinted that there may be “private companies behind”, and “political hostility”. He claimed to feel attacked “via radio stations, related newspapers and the political collusion of those who say that macro-centers like ours have no future. If this is so, none of us have a future.” Villar warned the squad that “possibly there is an enemy in herebecause the information that comes out is not entirely accurate”.
“We are not going to close for free, that will never happen. This foundation, this paradise of pieces of heaven that belongs to so many people who are here and who are no longer here, is not going to settle nor are we going to give this institution away to anyone”
Despite the criticism and negative reports about the center’s management, Villar insisted to the staff, in that speech that took place on February 23, that the Santa Rita Home “It is an example and we were pioneers in the application of measures against the coronavirus.” He defended that “Whoever says that in 2020 we did not maintain continuous contact with the health authorities due to Covid, is lying.. Be it outside or inside.”
Thomas Villar He acknowledged that he has suffered “the threat that the concerted places in Santa Rita will be reduced”, which he called inconsistency and “unfair treatment”: “There is a need on the islands, with more than 8,000 people waiting for a residential place and in Santa Rita there are more than 200 that are not occupied. What is behind all this history? Faced with a possible definitive intervention by Hogar Santa Rita, Villar warned his workers that the residence “we are not going to close it for free, that will never happen. This foundation, this paradise of pieces of heaven that belongs to so many people who are here and who are no longer here, is not going to settle, nor are we going to give this institution away to anyone. That the official organizations start thinking that as long as we have the current accreditation, we are going to continue managing the Santa Rita Home in the best possible way”. And given the possibility that jobs will be lost as a result of this judicial process, Villar issued a warning to his staff: “It is very cold out there, there is a lot of Erte”.
For the head of the Home Santa Rita, “through which more than 5,100 elderly people and some 2,100 workers have passed”his court appearance this Friday, March 11, 2022 is not in a personal capacity, although he is investigated for his responsibility as a director, but rather he attends, according to what he told his staff: “On behalf of all the workers to the courts, where I will try to defend your work, your honor and, above all, your love for this center”.
