Canarian Coalition and Yes We Can Canaries in Tenerife are critical of the ad launched from the Social Action area of the Council about what 7,100 people make up the waiting list for a public health care place on the Island. CC understands that “they have stopped investing 90 million euros in two and a half years” in this area while the purple people attribute the current situation to the inheritance left by “decades of disastrous politics.”
The counselor of CC-PNC Blanca Pérez considers “irresponsible” the “lack of management” of Pedro Martin and Marián Franquet, that “has caused that not a single new position has been created in two years.” He insists that “the PSOE has been more concerned with destroying what there was, such as the Ansina program, than with addressing the problems of the elderly.”
Pérez explains that “at the end of our mandate (mid-2019), there were two centers under construction, another two through subsidies to municipalities and an investment program with guaranteed 90 million euros.” After two and a half years, he values, “none of the started centers have been started, the work of some under construction has been paralyzed and only one (Arico) has been put out to tender in the reporting phase.” Conclude. “The reality is that they have stopped investing almost 90 million euros and with them the option of putting into operation more than 900 newly built parking spaces.”
Blanca Pérez (CC) warns that waiting lists have increased in the last two years
The counselor of CC-PNC points out that «In 2019, an item of 22.4 million euros had been foreseen and actions were planned in the short and medium term of the Social Health Infrastructure Plan ». He adds: «The forecast was to work on 23 infrastructures throughout the entire plan, which would mean, once the works were completed, the action in 2,188 residential and 482 daytime squares, which add up to a total of 2,670, of which close to 1,700 would be new. “It is clear that there is a lack of places in Tenerife and that the situation has worsened in the last two years because the government group has not done anything,” says the counselor. He emphasizes: “It is not due to lack of money, but of management.” In this sense, he points out that “of the 32.7 million euros planned in investments for this year, only 6.5 million had been executed as of October 31 (27.4%)”. He concludes: “They have lost a magnificent opportunity to increase the number of dependency care places on the Island.”
An old problem
María José Belda, spokesperson for Sí Podemos Canarias, points out that this long waiting list for social and health care “is the result of the disastrous policies over the decades of CC at the head of the Canary Islands Government and in the Cabildo.”
Belda declares that the inheritance left by CC «has been a huge burden, a situation of shortage of places and socio-sanitary resources to deal with a long-predicted problem ”. Remember that in the previous term “CC was dedicated to looking for buildings to buy from Antonio Plasencia, instead of focusing attention on solving this serious problem.” The representative of Sí Podemos Canarias is committed to reversing this situation by “expanding jobs, which would have a favorable influence on the violet economy, something we have been demanding for a long time.” It would represent “an economic stimulus that would benefit people in a situation of dependency.” Belda highlights the priority of “giving an urgent response to those who need care and do not have it.” He considers that “before the end of the mandate this situation must be resolved and respond to the needs of this sector of the population.”