The person in charge of Institutional Policy of IU Castilla-La Mancha, Txema Fernández, has denounced the “irresponsibility” of the regional president, Emiliano García-Page, when criticizing the new model of residences for the elderly that the Minister of Social Rights, Ione, aspires to impose. Belarra, considering that this model humanizes nursing homes and that García-Page seeks “to be opposed by the national government.”
The regional head of Institutional Policy of the United Left has recalled that in the hardest moments of the pandemic, the shortcomings of these centers in the care of vulnerable groups were evident. Until now, “none of the regional governments had clearly considered what the best management model for these centers should be, or whether these centers responded to the expectations of necessary care in difficult times,” as reported by the IU.
The regional president, Fernández has criticized, has attacked the proposal to promote a new model of more humanized residences, justifying his refusal because from the central government “they say they put money but then it is not true; then it is the policy of ‘I invite but you pay’».
Given this response, Izquierda Unida de Castilla-La Mancha considers “unacceptable the lack of responsibility of those who do not assume their powers”, especially when they must and can guarantee this financing “with the more than 12,000 million euros of the regional budget for 2022” .
The regional head of Institutional Policy of IU has recalled that the regional government has already used State funds “for equality policies, with the Co-Responsible Plan, without contributing more money to the municipalities for the implementation of the measures contemplated”, so that it seems that “in this case the money from the Ministry is worth it”. Hence, Txema Fernández does not understand or share “the president’s lack of receptivity to guarantee financing and place residences for the elderly and people with disabilities in the place they deserve.” It is not about, he appreciates, “that nobody invites anyone to coffee or nobody pays we do not know what, it is about assuming a competition that, today, has been shown to need more investment to avoid falling into the situations experienced during the pandemic.”
In this sense, the regional head of Izquierda Unida denounces the “irresponsibility of a president who criticizes, with no alternative, the policies that humanize nursing homes only to be opposed by the Government of Spain.” And it is that what the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda proposes “are basic guidelines, called to guarantee more dignified situations for the users of these centers”, related to the staff ratios and the technical and physical characteristics of the centers .
It is about “improving infrastructures to turn them into centers that guarantee the optimal well-being of the elderly and people with disabilities” betting, in newly built centers, on limiting the number of places to 90 and for including a ratio of 0.35 workers in residences for the elderly, and 0.42 in residences with people with disabilities in 2023.
“Page fears that the proposal improves the conditions of habitability, employability and humanization of what is wanted to work in the region.”
Faced with the “snubbed” response from the regional president, the person in charge of Institutional Policy of Izquierda Unida Castilla-La Mancha has pointed out that “perhaps what García-Page fears is that this agreement improves the conditions of habitability, employability and humanization of what you want to work in Castilla-La Mancha».
Because, coincidentally, “the regulatory bases of the call for subsidies have been approved to finance investment projects in actions on the new economy of care in homes and centers for the elderly owned by the municipality.”
Perhaps, he said, “what has surprised the president is that what he wants to subsidize in the region is not the model of residences and centers for the elderly that the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda has in its roadmap”, marked from January 2021 when the plenary session of the Territorial Council approved the so-called ‘Shock Plan’, a document that includes twelve points for the improvement of the system, one of them referring to the need to address the modifications of the SAAD Centers and Services Accreditation Agreement of 2008 that are necessary to reinforce the quality of services.
