Tenerife It will have 14.8 million euros for the creation of 132 places to care for people in situations of dependency and disabilities. The Minister of Social Welfare of the Government of the Canary Islands, Candelaria Delgado, announced this yesterday during a meeting with the president of the Cabildo of TenerifeRosa Dávila (Canarian Coalition). Delgado specified that it is “the initial proposal” as he added that “we will continue with the technical meetings to adjust the number of places and analyze the specific needs of Tenerife.”
The creation of new places to care for the elderly and Tenerife residents with some type of dependency was one of Rosa Dávila’s main proposals before becoming president of the insular Corporation. It is a priority issue since the Island accumulates a large deficit in terms of healthcare resources. More than 7,000 islanders are waiting for a public place in the socio-health care centers of Tenerife, according to the latest official data provided in 2021 by the previous island Government, chaired by the socialist Pedro Martin.
Dávila assured after the meeting with the regional counselor of Social Welfare that the Council “will prioritize resuming the path of promoting social well-being, which, unfortunately, was abandoned in the last four years.” He added that his government’s intention is to “return to the Cabildo its role as an entity that, historically, has committed to caring for people, and especially the most vulnerable.”
A much needed service
The Tenerife president celebrated the announcement that Tenerife will have more than 130 new social and healthcare places, which “come thanks to the commitment of the Government of the Canary Islands with Tenerife when it comes to making additional resources available to this island to enable services that are absolutely necessary for our society.
The insular counselor of Social Action, Águeda Fumero (PP), assured for her part that the objective is “to address without delay the improvement of management in the care of the most vulnerable people”, to which she added that “the inheritance received does not has been good, so the commitment of the Government of Canary Islands and the Cabildo of Tenerife is essential to meet the needs of the citizens».
Distribution of funds
This investment is made according to the distribution of funds between the councils of the Care Economy axis and reinforcement of equality and inclusion policies of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Fund of Spain, whose destination is the creation of new places and expansion of the provision of care resources of the network of social and health centers.
The distribution of funds has been made according to different variables, in such a way that 60% of the total is established according to the population of each territory in this item. Tenerife, specifically, has 9.2 million euros according to the 931,646 people registered on the Island, according to the information provided yesterday by the Government of the Canary Islands in a statement.
The other 40% has been applied according to the number of dependent people, people over 80 years old, population between 65 and 79 years old, the population with a recognized disability greater than or equal to 33% from 0-64 years old and the ratio of available places in relation with the index promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for older people (5 per 100) and the ratio of available places, model coverage index of 5% of the total number of potentially dependent people between 0 and 64 years.
Initially, the financing proposal has been planned to contribute 50% of the total in the current year, 15% in the next year 2024, 25% in 2025 and the remaining 10% in 2026. According to the first calculations and Based on the initial forecasts transferred by local corporations, this investment will finance more than 600 new social and healthcare places on all the Islands. The infrastructures that will be paid for with these items will respond to the needs expressed by the island administrations to the Department of Social Welfare.
The last balance
The latest balance of the waiting lists for social and health places in Tenerife, of 7,100 people, doubles the previous one provided by the previous Minister of Social Affairs of the Cabildo, Marián Franquet (PSOE). In February 2021, the head of the Insular Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS) assured that there were “more than 3,000 Tenerife residents” waiting for the public care offered by the centers of the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands. Franquet clarified in the last Plenary Commission in December 2021 that this figure had risen to 7,100. It arose from the sum of two waiting lists, the one associated with the dependency policies of the regional Executive and another from the IASS.
