Felipe Afonso el Jaber says that “there are many people having a bad time” and “little confidence” in the system by citizens
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 2 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The first deputy to the Diputación del Comun, Felipe Afonso El Jaber, said this Thursday that the life of dependents in the Canary Islands, along with family members and caregivers, is “hard”, with “dramatic and Dantesque” situations derived from not being fulfill fundamental rights.
In the presentation to the media of the extraordinary report prepared by the institution corresponding to 2021, it has indicated that “there are many people having a bad time” on the islands because loneliness is increasing, there are dependents without a home or there are families with few children who have to choose between caring for or working or others with children on the Peninsula who cannot care for their elders.
He has indicated that the objective of the report — which will be debated in the middle of the month in a parliamentary committee — “is to try to help” from “humility, with a constructive spirit and in a transparent manner” since 27% of the complaints received by the institution are related to disability or dependency.
Afonso has indicated that it has been prepared with multiple data from Imserso, the INE, the General Directorate of Disability, the councils, the Dependency Observatory, family associations and third-sector entities and states, for example, that the Canary Islands “are very far” from the national coverage rate, because if it were in the average “30,000 more dependents would be served, more than twice as many as it serves”.
In addition, he lamented that the canaries are the ones that present the fewest requests for help to the dependency since people “have little confidence in the system or do not know it.”
He has also said that the waiting list stood at the end of last year at 943 days when the law sets a maximum of 180 and there are 6,900 people waiting for a degree resolution, with a time 15 times more than the legal limit allowed.
Afonso has pointed out that the shock plan launched last year “has not met its objectives” because while the dependency limbo fell by 16.7% in Spain, in the Canary Islands it increased by 23.1%, placing the rate at 27%, the third worst in the state.
MORE THAN 8,500 PLACES IN RESIDENCES ARE MISSING
In addition, the objective of incorporating 5,000 people into the system was not met either, since it barely reached just over 1,700, he stressed, while recalling that every day nine people die in the Canary Islands waiting for dependency.
As for the public sector, the report shows that spending per inhabitant is less than half the national average and the islands need 8,504 places in residences given that there are only 2.7 places for every 100 people over 65 years of age when the recommendation of WHO is five.
These more than 8,500 beds represent more than double what is included in the second health and social infrastructure plan.
As proposals to improve the current situation of a total of nineteen, Afonso has pointed out the need to increase public budgets because without money “no miracles are made”; try to “humanize” the residences so that they are smaller and less institutionalized and sign agreements with the city councils so that they make reports on dependency because “it would save time”.
