What does Adislan mean? I believe it is the ultimate expression of an island that cares about people. A non-profit association created by families concerned about the care and well-being of their sons and daughters, designing an exemplary care model, modern, avant-garde in the Canary Islands and the rest of the State. Adislan is, in short, the mirror where to look to build an island-home.
Not only as a nurse but as a citizen of Lanzarote, I feel enormous sadness for the immediate future of Adislan if the care model of the government group of the Island Council of Lanzarote (PSOE and Podemos) materializes. My position on the care of people is immovable: administrations and public officials must protect and develop social justice and the welfare state. With the care of people you can not do economic business or experiments in public policies.
Adislan, like many associations of similar activity in the rest of the islands, has developed its activity with total transparency through social agreements with the Island Council of Lanzarote, and under the mandate of different councilors of social rights regardless of political color.
Well, as most citizens know, and against the families and users, the president of the Cabildo and the councilor responsible for the social area, have started a "crusade" at full speed in order to tender the services provided by this association without taking into account the great damage that will be irreversible in the quality of care of users. With this attitude on the part of the PSOE, in connivance with Podemos as current government partner, Lanzarote is heading towards a public-private model Madrid style, with an attitude on the part of María Dolores Corujo of contempt towards organizations that have built the welfare state in our island. An authentic "ayusista" drift of the highest island authority.
I have visited Adislan's facilities twice as Insular Secretary of Welfare of Nueva Canarias, verifying in first person the great professionalism of its workers, such as assistants, therapists, caregivers, nurses, volunteers, etc. All of them possess a common quality that differentiates them: their vocation and the affection with which they care for people, even creating a direct and emotional bond that is now at risk of continuity.
We all know that it is legitimate for a private company to submit to a tender called by a public body in order to obtain profitability or do business with the services. But the big difference is when that tender is not intended, for example, to pave roads, collect waste or prune gardens, but the care of people, the shielding of their welfare, their development and autonomy, their integration into society, and their future. That's where political ideas come into play, what you defend and what defines you as a project. If the PSOE and Podemos in Lanzarote are in favor of the Madrid model, they will be burying their genuine political ideals, a concrete way of understanding and doing politics. It is not merely an economic or procedural issue, it is the ethics and public morality of the socialists that is at stake. Being a PSOE that defends social justice, the distribution of wealth and the value of the public; to an ultra-liberal PSOE that puts the normative and economic before people.
I swear I have tried to put myself in the situation of those fathers, mothers or relatives, and the truth is that it is terrifying to feel for a moment that anguish that they may be suffering when they are aware that the quality of care currently received by their children depends on a political decision.
On the other hand, I would like to reflect the lack of respect for Adislan by the highest authority of the first island institution. The Board of Directors has repeatedly requested a meeting with the president, obtaining silence in response or non-attendance. Those who came to recover the dignity of the Island Council are the same ones who are unable to sit down with their own people. Because let's not fool ourselves, Adislan is part of Lanzarote. Lanzarote and Adislan are inseparable.
Family members, workers, users, in short, ADISLAN as a whole, know of the great support they have from the majority of Lanzarote society, which responded in their favor in the last demonstration called that ran through the main streets of Arrecife. No matter how much they try to discredit the Association with unfounded and misleading statements, Adislan and its managers, unlike some public officials, have proven professional experience. The mediocrity of some will not bury a social emblem, we will not allow it.
On January 13 of this year 2022, the Government of the Canary Islands published in the BOC DECREE 144/2021, of December 29, which approved the Regulation of the social agreement in the field of social services of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. A regulation approved unanimously by all political forces in the Parliament of the Canary Islands. This is a priority tool to be assessed by the legal services and auditors of the Island Council, with which to avoid the last possible option, the tender and, therefore, the privatization of the services provided by Adislan.
Finally, I want to make a call to the entire society of Lanzarote. Let us be aware that tomorrow any of us may need these services. I demand unanimous support for this group in order to stop its bidding, but above all, to the political leaders who are now governing Lanzarote. Think again, you are on time, do not risk the care of these people. Together we can save Adislan.
Yoné Caraballo, Insular Secretary of Welfare in Nueva Canarias-Lanzarote. Emergency Nurse at the Dr. Molina Orosa Hospital.
