The counselor of Social Action of the Council of Tenerife and president of Institute of Social and Socio-Sanitary Care (IASS), Marian Franquetannounces in statements to EL DÍA that the insular legal services will appear in the open judicial process to clarify whether there was any type of crime in the management of Hogar Santa Rita during the worst months of the pandemic and that, in addition, they will “formally” request to enter the board of trustees of the foundation that directly directs and manages the largest geriatric residence in the Canary Islands, in Cross port.
The Council of Tenerife In this way, it wants to become directly involved in the management of this large center for the elderly, which receives around 6 million euros of public money each year for its places arranged with the IASS. Marian Franquet clarifies that after the precautionary suspension of 80 of those 374 concerted places, because they were not occupied, the last technical report on the Home Santa Rita “He now proposes to try to recover them, since the situation of our residents is considered adequate.”
“We had unoccupied places and that is why they were reduced, since the agreement forced us to pay for them even if they were free,” he explains. Franquetwho details that in recent months “several technical inspections have been carried out on IASS users, which are approximately a third of the total, but it is important to clarify that we do not have the capacity to inspect the situation of users who do not depend on us».
“We had unoccupied places and that is why they were reduced, since the agreement forced us to pay for them even if they were free”
“We have worked with the Santa Rita Home in these months to deal with issues that we saw could be improved and, right now, the technical report concludes that the service is adequate and that the elderly are in good condition. Malnutrition or scabies problems are not detected. In this situation, the proposal is to try to recover those 80 places that had been withdrawnalthough we do not know if it will be possible due to the current Covid outbreak in Santa Ritawhich prevents income, and also because due to the controversy that exists, many families prefer other centers », clarifies the counselor.
Franquet clarifies that «something different is the management of Hogar Santa Rita, where we are detecting a lot of opacity in matters such as economic management or human resources. Opacity that from the Cabildo we have not been able to clarify because we cannot get them to give us the data we ask for ». Faced with this situation, the Cabildo will formally request the Santa Rita Home Canary Foundation «to be members of its board of trustees, but that is the will and decision of the foundation. We understand that with all the money that the Cabildo invests in the concerted places and with all the responsibility that we have, we must be there to know what is happening and to be able to intervene.
As president of the IASS, Marian Franquet states that «the management of the manager is not adequate and we believe that a professional profile must be sought to be able to manage a residence of this type. Volunteerism and good faith are fine, but we need qualified staff to run this. And so we have transferred it to the foundation: they have to be professionalized and there must be a change in management ».
The IASS also urges the foundation that manages the Hogar Santa Rita to change its manager
Franquet explains that he has given instructions to the legal services of the Council of Tenerife so that they appear in the criminal case opened in the courts «because all the information we have to date is journalistic and we have asked the foundation to provide us with documents on this lawsuit and the court records, but they have given us absolutely nothing and we have no official information of any kind. And since we have users there, we have to go there.”
In addition, Franquet announces that they will continue to carry out «Periodics inspections and, in a few months, we will have a full report again. We will continue to be there to control the quality of services. Right now we are calm although we do not like the macro-residence model, which we continue to believe must change. Now we know that the elderly are not in conditions that concern us from a hygienic or nutritional point of view. Things have been corrected, but we do not understand the opacity in management and that is why we want to join the board of trustees».
