CCOO is beginning to file complaints about the lack of air conditioning in many residences for the elderly and dependents in the Community of Madrid. The union maintains that users and workers are already experiencing very critical situations and 90% of laundromat professionals work “in extreme conditions that compromise their health.”
The union demands that the Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, that the addresses of the residences take measures to “adapt the air conditioning and reinforce the staff to guarantee health.”
According to Juani Peñafiel, head of the CCOO Sanidad Madrid unit, we must intervene to guarantee air conditioning in all centers for the elderly in the Community of Madrid because “we cannot allow a misfortune to occur to start acting”. “Professionals at the centers are at risk, not only because their work requires a lot of physical effort and bad weather conditions put them in a dangerous situation, but also because dependent people with some type of dementia need specific supervision and there are no professionals enough to guarantee their safety,” he stresses.
The problem arises both in the rooms and in the common rooms of the centers. According to the information compiled by the CCOO, in many day centers, where dependent people from Madrid spend a good part of their time, “the air conditioning in the main living rooms does not work”. For example, this situation has been detected in the Almorós Day Center, Fátima, Pablo Neruda de El Pardo, which has broken equipment and where the elderly have to endure temperatures above 35º, some working days of up to 9 hours a day. .
In Grupo Vitalia residences, for example in Torrejón, the air conditioning is in perfect condition but they restrict hours to save costs; In the center of Griñón, the air does not work in the common areas, where residents spend most of the day; In the Carabanchel residence, the air conditioning does not work.
In many of these facilities, CCOO warned those responsible for management to correct the deficiencies, before the high temperatures arrived, but “no measures have been taken”, they point out. In the Amavir Group, in its center in Leganés there are two cooling machines and one does not work; In Villalba, only the dining room is operational and with restricted hours, the rest do not work.
In the Aralia Peñuelas residence, in addition to the air conditioning problems, it presents multiple deficiencies that are taking the activity of the center to the limit. In this last case, the union delegates have filed a complaint in which they uncover the critical situation in which the center finds itself. “A residence with a shortage of staff, low quality food, lack of cleaning staff, a shortage of necessary and adequate materials to serve users or habitual insect pests,” the complaint states. Faced with this situation, CCOO points out that for three weeks the urgent intervention of the Community of Madrid has been demanded.
In Peñafiel’s opinion, the staff in the residences “are always underfunded, but the problem is greater in the summer as they do not cover the vacancies for vacations.” To which he adds: “Users with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of neurological pathologies could suffer crises due to high temperatures, since they do not perceive the sensation of heat, they do not feel the voluntary need to hydrate, they regulate their temperature poorly and they do not have ability to convey these needs, so they need constant supervision”.
