The Deputy of the Common, Rafael Yanes, has once again reminded in the parliamentary commission this Tuesday that the Canary Islands is at the bottom of Spain in terms of attention to dependency, so it must set its priorities in its budgets, arguing that "if we do not give resources it is difficult to demand responsibility."
In the extraordinary report on dependency presented by Yanes, he cited the budget figures for the Canary Islands and compared them with Castilla y León, a community with a similar population: 125 million euros in 2021 compared to 329 million; 67 euros per inhabitant per year compared to 185, with the Spanish average at 148. The Deputy of the Common once again proposed to the political groups a great pact for dependency based on more budget, more personnel, simplification of files and collaboration with the town halls.
These four axes include the 19 proposals, some of them already underway, such as providing the service with a file manager, a computer tool that has already been awarded although it has not yet been launched and that "should have been the first measure taken 16 years ago," Yanes stressed.
"It is also necessary to increase staff and adapt the list of jobs to real needs," insists the Deputy of the Common. "The Valencian Community was in 2017 in the last places in dependency, like the Canary Islands, but it increased its staff by 300% and came out of the well immediately."
The need to simplify files and create more places in residences
Another important point for the Deputation of the Common is the simplification of the files, since for each dependent person there are two files, one for the recognition of degree and another to assign an individual care program.
That means two visits per request, so if there are 25,000 people on the waiting list, that's 50,000 visits, and since there is no economic collaboration with the town halls to hire specific staff, that's 50,000 trips by staff from the Ministry from the provincial capitals.
Without going any further, Castilla y León has already unified the two files into one, with one visit and one resolution of degree and benefit in the same act, while Extremadura maintains the two separate resolutions but only one visit, according to some alternatives cited by Yanes.
He also referred to the need for places in residences, since the second plan for socio-health infrastructures is still unfinished, and when it is finished there will still be a deficit of more than 8,000 places to meet the standards of the World Health Organization, which are 5 places for every 100 people over 65 years of age.
Spain, with 4.3, does not meet this criterion, but even more so the Canary Islands, with 2.7, in turn very far from Castilla y León, with 7.8. A new model of socio-health centers is also needed that is closer to the idea of personalized treatment similar to a home, compared to the traditional "macro-centers," Yanes explained.
Complementary aid to dependents also differs in the islands, with 300 euros per month for those in grade one compared to 767 in Castilla y León or with 715 euros for those in grade 3 compared to 929 in the peninsular community.
The parties agree on the need for a pact, but blame each other
The Deputy of the Common proposed creating a social dialogue table on dependency to develop these and other proposals and "a great pact for dependency" in the islands.
The PSOE deputy Teresa Cruz Oval admitted the need for this pact and said that after a terrible management of dependency in the Canary Islands by Coalición Canaria, with the current Government a plan is being deployed to counteract the cuts of the past and starting from a position of great delay the data indicate that it is evolving.
For her part, Jana González, from CC, stated that "it is felt" in civil society that there is a desire to solve the great problem of dependency in the islands, and demands that the Government of the Canary Islands lead this change and reflect it in its budgets, not only in its words.
Likewise, Poli Suárez, deputy of the PP, demanded that pact for dependency and the involvement of everyone in a decisive way, but recalled how the Government groups have rejected the amendments of his party to improve the budget.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for Nueva Canarias, Luis Campos, stressed that the pandemic, the volcanic eruption and the migratory crisis have reduced the possibility of increasing the budget for dependency, but added that more resources have begun to be incorporated and results are beginning to be seen, so that in 2022 the best in history are being seen in the archipelago.
In that line, María del Río, from Sí Podemos Canarias, emphasized that takeoff in the first five months of 2022, with figures already higher than all of 2019, in an effort to lay the foundations for attention to dependency that in the Canary Islands maintained a structural deficit since the approval of the law in 2006.
Finally, the deputy of ASG Melodie Mendoza stated that all governments in the Canary Islands "have failed in dependency" although "all have given their all to reverse the figures" and pointed out that the current executive is sensitive to this problem.
