SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Social Welfare Department of the Canary Islands government has recruited ten doctors and is planning to add more assessment staff to speed up the waiting list for disability evaluations.
Additionally, the ministry has opted to delegate the issuance of medical, psychological, and social reports to the Island Councils, while also working on developing procedures support applications.
This was disclosed in Parliament by the department’s councillor, Candelaria Delgado, who noted that the current government inherited a waiting list of about 30,000 files when they took over disability management.
Delgado explained, “This, among other reasons, prompted us to recognize the need for a specific General Directorate to tackle this challenge.”
Delgado argued that the “chronic” shortage of assessment staff, the “disastrous” digitization of management, as well as the restrictions due to the pandemic and the implementation of Royal Decree 888/2022, which introduced a new evaluation procedure, “contributed to significant delays in disability recognition in the past.”
New Recruitment
Regarding the recent hires, the councillor clarified that in order to address the “most serious problem” of staff shortage, ten doctors have already been recruited in the first six months – six in Gran Canaria and four in Tenerife – to supplement and expand the Multiprofessional Teams handling assessments.
Delgado specified that six of them were assigned on Service Commission by the Canarian Health Service (SCS), while the other four filled vacant positions in Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
With the new hires, the General Directorate of Disability has increased from 15 doctors across all the islands to 25, allowing for 11 doctors to cater to requests in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife – nine in Tenerife and two in La Palma – and 14 in the province of Las Palmas – two in Lanzarote, one in Fuerteventura, and eleven in Gran Canaria.
Furthermore, the new General Directorate has requested FUCAS (Canary Foundation for Social Action) to recruit additional assessment staff to form five new complete multiprofessional teams. Each of these teams comprises medical, psychological, and social work personnel. The councillor specified that two of these new teams will be in Tenerife, another two in Gran Canaria, and one in Fuerteventura.
In addition to disability assessments, each evaluation team must handle previous claims against grade resolutions, attend court hearings, and prepare reports on various disability-related matters: functional abilities, access to public services, job adaptations, and more.
COMMITMENTS TO COUNCILS MANAGEMENT
Another measure disclosed by the councillor was entrusting the Island Councils, through new agreements, with the issuance of medical, psychological, and social reports to support the Disability Assessment Centers.
In this regard, she explained that the assignment to the Councils of Fuerteventura and La Palma has already been extended, increasing the participating staff for the year 2024, and proposed signing new agreements with the Councils of La Gomera and El Hierro to commence evaluations in those areas; also with the Councils of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, which will permit the establishment of new teams throughout the territory, based on population, as well as an agreement with the Council of Lanzarote to bolster the capacity of the existing assessment unit in Arrecife, with the reinforcement of the two existing teams.
Finally, Delgado announced ongoing work on developing support applications. “Upon our arrival, we found that each disability assessment center used its own protocols and criteria, so it is essential to organize the work around an information system that structures and acts as a guide, allowing the integration of all information from external agents connected to the matter.”
