"For the first time, the Canary Islands is beginning to reverse its debt with dependency." The Minister of Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth of the Government of the Canary Islands, Noemí Santana, has explained that the balance of the past year 2022 on dependency and reduction of waiting lists is "tremendously positive", having resolved 9,919 cases.
The Minister has pointed out in an interview on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero that these data show that "four times more cases have been solved than in the previous legislature", so she expresses her satisfaction, although she recognizes that "there is work to be done".
6,000 fewer people on the waiting lists
The work carried out by the current government in these years, which has taken 6,000 people off the waiting lists, has managed to "reverse the expected data": "When the Canarian Coalition (CC) was in power, the report of the National Dependency Observatory predicted that it would take more than 60 years to solve this problem. However, at the rate we are going, we hope to have the waiting lists at zero between the end of this year and the beginning of next year", Santana has advanced.
However, despite the "good pace" and the increase in resolved cases compared to the previous term (in 2018, under the CC government, 2,300 were completed compared to 9,919 in 2022), the politician acknowledges that it has been a "horrible" process.
"We have resolved cases that had been waiting for 12 years, of people who are no longer here. There is a family that has been paid 50,000 euros, due to all the delay they had suffered," she explained.
The lack of residences continues to be a problem
Faced with this situation, Santana explains that the government of which she is a part intends "not only to resolve pending cases, but also to provide comprehensive care to people so that they can see their needs met, not only through money, but also through care".
But for this, resources are needed, and although "more and more people are choosing to grow old in their environment", according to the Minister, "it is true that there are people with higher requirements, so there is a commitment to generate new beds in residences".
In this sense, the Canarian Government is using an amount of "more than 70 million from European Funds, in addition to applying the Socio-Sanitary Infrastructure Plan".
Lanzarote, one of the islands with the greatest lack of spaces
In the case of Lanzarote, over the years, the problem of lack of space has increased.
"In the past, an award was made to a company that can even be described as a vulture fund, and now the whole process is in court, so we are waiting to resolve it while we look for other types of alternatives," says the Minister.
Some of these options are the conversion of health spaces into socio-health spaces or the creation of concerted places until they can be made public. However, Santana rules out the option of buying tourist accommodation to allocate it to this cause.
"The new law on socio-health centers is very demanding regarding the characteristics of the rooms. If we buy tourist accommodation, we would have to convert practically the entire thing, so it is easier to do it directly with health centers."
However, she does not rule out the option of using this resource to treat "people with fewer requirements, as an active aging action".
In Lanzarote, 800 cases will be resolved
After her visit to Lanzarote and her meetings with the Island Council, the Directorate of Social Rights has estimated at 800 the number of dependent people on the island who will be taken out of this situation.
Faced with the question of whether the Ministry has fallen short in the number, Santana acknowledges that it probably has: "Although we have approached many families to find out about their needs, there are many who do not apply for dependency, either because they can take care of them in the family environment or because they have lost hope having to wait so long".
The Minister attributes this situation to the "disaster" that this issue has been for so many years, but she is optimistic about the future: "Although the road to achieving good dependency data is long, we are managing to put the house in order".
