The president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, has appeared in the extraordinary plenary session held this Thursday to report on the actions carried out after the information related to the alleged deficiencies in the Amavir Tías elderly residence, as well as the dissemination of videos in which alleged vexations to users are observed.
Before his intervention, the president gave the floor to the head of the Residences Supervision Unit, Daysi Villalba, who explained in detail the operation of this service, which was reactivated by the current governing group.
During his appearance, Oswaldo Betancort was forceful in stressing that “the protection of our elders is above any political confrontation”, appealing to "institutional responsibility and rigor in the handling of this type of situations".
Betancort lamented the statements made by the socialist spokesperson, Dolores Corujo, warning of "the consequences generated by statements of this seriousness". “They cause concern in families, unfairly point to professionals and generate distrust towards public services and towards the administration itself”. In this regard, he defended the actions of the island Corporation, assuring that “faced with this situation, the Cabildo de Lanzarote has acted exactly as a responsible public institution should act”.
In this context, Betancort highlighted that "the Cabildo has acted responsibly from the first moment, transferring all available information to the Civil Guard for its investigation and requesting the Government of the Canary Islands to carry out the appropriate inspections".
At the same time, the president highlighted that the institution "has activated different actions to reinforce the supervision of the service, with the priority objective of guaranteeing the peace of mind of families." In this regard, he criticized the attitude of the opposition, pointing out that “it didn't matter to keep a hundred relatives awake; anything goes for a headline or to try to harm this corporation through the pain of others, the pain of our people.”
Mechanisms of control and recovery of the Supervision Unit
In parallel, as highlighted by the Minister of Social Welfare, Marci Acuña, the Cabildo has held meetings with the managing company to "review the operation of the service, with the workers to acknowledge their work and with the families themselves to offer direct information and listen to their concerns, while supervision and monitoring mechanisms have been intensified".
“We have dedicated ourselves to working, activating all the necessary protocols to provide peace of mind to the elderly and their families,” Acuña affirmed, insisting that “we are responding to each of the claims since our priority is to guarantee the rights and well-being of the users.”
Likewise, Acuña regretted that "the socialist government eliminated in the last legislature the Supervision Unit of socio-health places, which we have now recovered to maximize control mechanisms and which the PSOE eliminated without addressing absolutely any of the claims and complaints that already existed since 2019," detailed the counselor.
Finally, President Oswaldo Betancort conveyed a message to the citizenry, assuring that “the institution is acting and will continue to act as a guarantor of the well-being and rights of older people”, while also emphasizing that the Cabildo "will continue collaborating with all competent administrations to improve the quality of socio-health care on our island".