The Deputy of the Common, Lola Padrón, warned this Tuesday in the Parliament plenary that the Canarian public administrations themselves are generating "invisible poverty" in society due to the lack of response from public services such as health or housing, deficiencies that generate "fear" in a society unprotected against evictions or medical neglect.
Lola Padrón presented her 2024 annual report in the plenary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, the first since she took office, which reflects an increase of more than 8% in citizens' complaints against the administrations, in particular the autonomous one, which concentrates 70% of the protests.
The Deputy of the Common has made two specific requests to the Government of the Canary Islands, one on housing and the other on health, two areas in which citizens have "fear".
In one case, the fear comes from the difficulties in coping with the rise in rents and in the other from the lack of medical care, particularly among the population of the north of Tenerife due to the poor functioning of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands.
In housing, she urged the Government to launch a plan for empty homes, which would give "immediate results", and also asked for the price of rents to be regulated in stressed areas.
Regarding the HUC, she said that it is a good hospital with excellent professionals, but its emergency service is "unacceptable".
For this reason, she has demanded a direct intervention by the autonomous government in the University Hospital of the Canary Islands to proceed with an operational reorganization of the emergency services and to "review the profiles" of the management and the medical direction of this health center.
The HUC "undermines the credibility" of the health system and "creates fear" among the population of the north of Tenerife for having to use its services, warned the Deputy of the Common.
She has related the deficiencies in public health care with the advance of 65% in private insurance, which occurs despite the fact that half of Canarian families do not have sufficient resources to cope with an unforeseen event, one more sign that the administration "does not respond" and generates "invisible poverty", according to the Deputy of the Common.
Lola Padrón has also spoken of the "fear" that exists among families of being evicted, "not only in families at risk of social exclusion, which too", but in many others who do not see themselves capable of coping with the constant increase in rents.
She has recognized that actions are being planned in housing, but at the same time it is evident that "the population is at the limit" and the figures of vulnerability are increasing, "a vulnerability that can affect us all", she stressed.
Along with the two demands to the Government of the Canary Islands, the Deputy of the Common has addressed an additional request to the Parliament of the Canary Islands: to resume the law of the third sector, which aimed to economically stabilize the entities that work in the care and coverage of social rights.
"If we didn't have a third sector, I don't know what we would do", Lola Padrón told the parliamentarians.
More than five years to recognize the degree of disability
The Deputy of the Common has pointed out that in her parliamentary intervention she wanted to focus on two of the main problems that generate "invisible poverty", such as housing and health care, but the complaints cover all areas.
The report is based on these complaints and therefore it is the voice of the citizens, it is not the voice of the Deputy of the Common, said Lola Padrón, and she has urged the deputies to "listen, take note and act".
The 2024 report of the Deputy of the Common reflects the "concern, fatigue, discouragement and uncertainty" among the population due to the lack of response from the administrations to their problems and the difficulty of making their rights effective.
Among the 3,199 complaints, the majority are directed to the disability area of the Government of the Canary Islands (603), which takes up to five years to recognize the degrees, when legally it should resolve it in a maximum of six months.
It is followed by dependency, with 470 complaints, social services, with 284, health, with 224, housing, with 178, work and public function, with 174, and social security and employment, with 151.
