The Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands have signed this Monday the agreement for the creation of the Consortium that will allow the promotion of the Comprehensive Care Service for Dependency on the Island of Lanzarote (SAIDIL). This "pioneering" collaboration in the Canary Islands between the Island Institution, the Canary Government and the seven town councils aims to "reduce waiting lists and provide equal services for the entire population of Lanzarote and La Graciosa".
The president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, pointed out that, through this agreement, a Consortium is created that is born with a financing of more than 46 million euros, which will allow it to develop its activity between 2022 and 2024.
Corujo, promoter of this project, signed the protocol together with the Minister of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands, Noemí Santana. “We are facing a unique example of cooperation and collaboration between the three levels of Public Administrations, through which we are committed to the specialization and optimization of resources, thus avoiding duplication and guaranteeing the efficiency of services”, she stressed.
“This is a project promoted by the Cabildo of Lanzarote with which we want all the residents, regardless of the municipality in which they reside, to receive the same attention. The idea is not only that everyone has attention in matters of Dependency, but that all people receive the same attention. I am convinced that this project will leave the waiting list at zero”, said the president.
“In this way, Dependency becomes, as established by law, a right, overcoming the welfare nature of Social Rights in the Canary Islands for so many years. The island management of the service will guarantee all this, both in terms of home help, as well as in the promotion of personal autonomy and telecare, providing the three services with an insular character for the first time in history”, Corujo stressed.
“This important budget allocation will allow us to have the necessary resources to provide high-quality services with a strong innovative component to our dependent people with total independence from the municipality in which they reside. Our town councils make an enormous effort, sometimes not sufficiently recognized, to care for dependent people”, she stressed.
The right of "everyone"
For her part, the Minister of Social Rights, Noemí Santana, indicated that “normally, it is the dependent people or their families who go to the administrations to request help”. "Thanks to this protocol, it is the administrations that have approached, thanks to the effort and involvement of the municipalities, to each door, to each house of the residents of Lanzarote, to assess their needs”.
In this way, through the new consortium, Lanzarote will have a Home Help Service of an insular scope and that, progressively, other services such as "telemedicine, domotics or advanced telecare in homes" will be implemented.
According to the agreement signed, there will be a budget increase of three million euros for 2022 and seven million for 2023. 675 people will be cared for between home help and promotion of personal autonomy. That means that, together with the care that is already being given, the entire waiting list of Lanzarote and La Graciosa will be covered.
“From now on, the people who appear on the waiting lists will be attended directly by the Consortium, which will provide them with the services to which they are entitled, even anticipating the resolution of their file”, detailed Dolores Corujo.
“I am convinced that this initiative will mean a before and after in the attention to dependency in Lanzarote. We will go from providing a welfare service to attending to a fundamental right of this group, established by law. I want to publicly thank the Minister, Noemí Santana, for her willingness, the general director of Dependency and Disability, Marta Arocha, who was the island director in this Cabildo, which has served so that she has seen this project, and my recognition to the island councilor of the Area, Isabel Martín, and her team”, concluded the president.