The Government demands funds from the councils without spending on places for the elderly

Once caught the reins of the Ministry, the team that heads Candelaria Delgado It is meeting with all the councils to close the eternal II Plan and update the items executed and those that have not been executed so that they can be returned, although there is also the option of compensation by the island corporations. “There are councils that are aware that they have to repay funds because they have not executed what was planned in the plan,” he warns. the deputy minister of Social Welfare, Francis Candil. Those most affected by this situation are the councils of Lanzarote and The iron which, according to the data in the hands of the Executive, have not executed any of the positions planned when the agreement was signed in December 2017. Also the councils of Tenerife and Gran Canaria will have to return money although the specific amounts are being negotiated, while the councils of The Palm, La Gomera and Fuerteventura Yes, they have executed all the places they had committed to.

According to the figures of the Autonomous Community, the places contemplated by the original document of the II Social and Health Infrastructure Plan were 5,053, of which 4,476 were finally planned. He program was signed by the first government of Fernando Clavijo and the seven councils in December 2017 and extended for three years, until 2020. The island with the most planned places is Tenerife with 2,540, followed by Gran Canaria with 1,301. They are followed by La Palma -278-, La Gomera -185-, Lanzarote -180-, Fuerteventura -150- and El Hierro -27-. When we enter the final stretch of 2023, La Palma has completed 141 places, La Gomera 185, Fuerteventura 167 and Gran Canaria 84. Tenerife, Lanzarote and El Hierro have not completed any infrastructure one hundred percent. As of today there are 577 finalized places.

Francis Candil considers that the plan should be definitively closed in 2024 and gives scope to the councils of Gran Canaria and Tenerife to complete several works that are underway and that would give a boost to planning in its last year. Along with the funds from the plan, we must now add 72 million more euros from the European Next Generation funds that will have to program institutions to execute them before 2026. Candil admits that the refund must be carried out by the councils that have failed to comply, although the amounts and compensation that can be made are still being “adjusted.”

The counselor of Policy Social of Cabildo of Gran CanariaIsabel Mena, Remember that this II Social and Health Infrastructure Plan has gone through multiple vicissitudes because it was signed without any type of planning or schedule, in such a way that there was neither land nor projects drawn up to invest the funds in the short term. With the Covid pandemic, everything came to a standstill and since then islands like Gran Canaria They have accelerated fully to finalize the planned places, in such a way that throughout 2024 practically all of them will be finished according to the estimates of the Gran Canaria Cabildo. “It has been impossible for the councils to do it faster, when you start from scratch you cannot establish three years as was done at the time,” adds Mena.

The insular counselor recognizes that the Canary Islands Government He claims from the Cabildo some six million euros of unexecuted amounts from the years 2017 and 2018, years in which “no one executed anything” because they were looking for land and drafting projects. Regarding European funds, the insular Corporation is waiting to close with the Executive the agreement for the transfer of the funds that correspond to Gran Canaria.

And the future? Both the Executive and the councils consider that a Third Plan is necessary but this time without making the mistakes of the one still in force and that not only contains a list of works, residences and places within a certain period. The Ministry of Social Welfare is committed to turning around assistance to the elderly and disabled in line with new trends in social and health care. Deputy Minister Candil believes it is necessary to promote home help in the coming years because the only answer to older people is not “residentialization.” Both Candil and Mena believe that a new social and health plan is necessary because more places are still necessary, but also that it be a plan in which the same importance is given to other alternatives such as day centers, telecare, occupational centers or home help. . “The model of the future is to be more at home,” adds Isabel Mena. “We must make an important quantitative and qualitative leap in the coming years and carry out more comprehensive planning,” indicates the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare.