Juan José de León lives in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and is one of the people who put a face to the long wait that exists in the Canary Islands for the degree of disability to be recognized or reviewed. The Law states that it must be resolved within six months, but the reality is that it takes up to four years. “You can’t wait four years; “His life depends on it,” explains his daughter Amanda, who has not stopped moving to give her father a better quality of life.
This 69-year-old man suffers from a “progressive and degenerative disease due to different problems he has,” explains Amanda, who adds that “this causes him to have very significant mobility difficulties and he lives confined to a wheelchair.” Everything comes from kidney failure and severe heart disease. “Her health is quite bad and this has been progressive,” insists her daughter, who says that last year she almost died and had a leg amputated.
Amanda’s mother is Juan José’s caregiver, who despite his illness “does a lot to fight,” says his daughter. He explains that to take care of his mental health, his father paints pictures to distract himself. “We have suffered a lot and we have felt abandonment by the Government,” he points out. He emphasizes that when he started this process he was knocking on doors, but he believes that the information is “quite scarce.”
For Juan José and his family, the fact that his disability situation is recognized and reviewed would allow him to have a parking card and thus facilitate access to the doctor, for example, since he constantly attends consultations and dialysis every two days. “If we take it ourselves, then we have to leave it there, look for parking and so on, but if we had the card, it would be much easier.” Amanda says that they have adapted a car for her father and that it could be used more easily if they had that accreditation. He points out that now the ambulance takes him to those medical appointments, but many times they have to wait between three and four hours to return home. “The last time he left at 3:00 p.m. and they picked him up at 8:00 p.m.,” he adds.
Having the recognition of the degree of disability that Juan José currently has would also allow him to reduce the price of orthopedic products, for example, since he requires an adapted bath chair, bars, handles, anti-decubitus material… He also explains that with this recognition they could have received a subsidy to adapt the car or to adapt the home.
Juan José lives on a third floor without an elevator and the pension he receives is quite fair, says Amanda, who adds that the family has had to buy a crane out of pocket. “The chairs of a crane so that I could go up and down the stairs because if not, I would now be in prison,” he remarks.
This man is recognized by the Dependency Law with this right, but now he needs a grade review. Amanda has requested both this review and the disability in February and sees how the year goes and no answers are given. He points out that he has already been told that waiting times are four years and it is “unfeasible.” “Do you think a person can wait four years? “You can die sooner…” he questions. He also emphasizes that in his case, his father is not alone, but he wonders what happens to those people who do not have a family.
In November, the family filed a complaint with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families. “I claim that I have submitted a request for Review and recognition of the degree of disability on February 27, 2024 and that after 8 months and 20 days I have still not received any type of response, nor any summons, taking into account that the deadline The maximum response time for said request is 6 months,” explains Juan José. “I ask that this request be attended to and answered as soon as possible, my health is quite bad and my circumstances are very difficult. I need to be cared for to be able to make my daily life a little easier, I have very reduced mobility due to the fact that I am in a wheelchair and due to the weakness I suffer from,” he stressed.
Likewise, he has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman. “I feel obliged to complain because I cannot wait four years as I have been told the waiting list is. It urges me due to my state of health, which is quite bad, in addition to reduced mobility due to having my lower right limb amputated above the knee, approximately a year ago, as a result of my illnesses; End-stage renal failure on dialysis, severe ischemic heart disease undergoing surgery, residual ventricular dysfunction and many more conditions and pathologies that make my daily life quite difficult. Needless to say, all this makes me a vulnerable person not only because of the dependency I have to carry out any task in my daily life, but I also have reduced mobility, I depend on a wheelchair because they cannot give me prostheses due to cardiac pathologies. “I suffer,” he highlights in the complaint sent.
“I need to resolve it as soon as possible to be able to alleviate and reduce all the difficulties that I face in my daily life, such as, for example, getting my parking card approved, a subsidy to install a stair lift in my building, since I live in a third, without elevator, to be able to adapt my home to my disability, etc. I pray that you listen to me and that you help me expedite this process. It is easy to understand the urgency and need that I have due to the circumstances in which I find myself and solving it would mean gaining a little more quality of life,” he stressed in that letter.
The Common Deputy investigates these delays
This same week, the Common Representative, Lola Padrón, announced that she had opened an ex officio investigation due to the long wait of people with disabilities for recognition and review. The complaints received from the Common Council about these delays usually focus on excessive bureaucracy, the lack of specialized personnel, the delay in the evaluation of applications and the lack of transparency in the process. In fact, disability is the area that processes the most complaints, with a number that increases year after year.
The main reason for complaint is the delay in resolving the degree and reviewing the degree of disability, “which is the gateway to exercising other inherent rights and benefits.” Lola Padrón asked this week to provide more human resources, as well as review and simplify administrative procedures, promote coordination between the different services involved and inform people about the status of their applications.
The general director of Disability of the Government of the Canary Islands, Dulce María Gutiérrez González, told this newspaper last month that as of October 29, “a total of 6,800 resolutions” have been issued, but she clarifies that they are of different types: degree of recognition of disability, applications for housing, adaptation of positions… He also explained that “we are with a project and several tenders related to technological issues, artificial intelligence or data automation, to be able to define very well, clean the files that They are duplicates, perhaps deceased people who continue to appear… Things that in the end get in the way because they do not make you have a clear vision of what the reality is on our map and that do not allow us to focus our attention on what needs to be done.
Likewise, he insisted that work is being done to simplify the file manager, increase staff by thirteen doctors or promote the disability accreditation card, which he hopes to have “soon.”
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