The problems with the long-term care service are still there, despite the increase in budgets by the Government in the last three years. But the situation was so bad from its inception (the law, which is now 17 years old, was born with a reduced budget, severely limited in the years of the great crisis), that reducing the waiting lists becomes an almost impossible task: 310,429 people are currently waiting to be assisted (some with a recognized right awaiting care, others awaiting assessment). More than 45,000 people die a year on the agency’s waiting lists, which means that 124 people die a day on those lists, one every 12 minutes.
These are some of the data provided by the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the approval of the Law on Dependency Care and Promotion of Personal Autonomy. “Seventeen years later, despite the progress that this law has brought, one of the State policies with the greatest consensus, its financing limitations and the complexity of procedures in some communities mean that its potential remains undeveloped,” they point out from this entity.
One of the biggest problems that those who need long-term care services have is the delay in receiving care. The average wait to receive it is 323 days, although there are communities, such as Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Murcia, that exceed a year. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, committed in his investiture speech to reduce to 30 days the period for granting the dependent the benefit he needs.
In this sense, this entity urges the Government and the communities to undertake the necessary reforms to speed up the procedures. “It is necessary to simplify the procedures and apply measures of suspension and flexibility of the service or benefit without the need to resolve a new procedure. We must move towards the social prescription of the reference professional as the only requirement for the execution and implementation of the benefits “, they point out.
This requires economic resources, very limited until 2021. 6,321 million euros is the accumulated cut since 2012 by the State administration, considering the suppression of the agreed level, the reduction of the minimum level and the suppression of contributions of family caregivers.
More than 3,600 million euros is the accumulated increase in the last three years in the state contribution to the financing of dependency care, in the so-called Shock Plan, which represents a new phase of recovery of the dependency system.
Despite this injection, there are communities that have reduced their contribution. Last year, funding for dependency in ten communities was reduced by 98 million euros, “which made cash” with the budget increase made by the Government: Castilla La Mancha, Catalunya, Cantabria, Asturias, Valencia, Andalusia, Extremadura, Madrid, Castilla y León and Murcia, indicates the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services.
