Ibiza leads the Balearic Islands in the wait for a disability assessment: 21 months, according to data released today by the Ministry of Health of the Government. This is a delay that conditions access to essential benefits and support for hundreds of families on the island.
According to the latest data reported by the Govern, there are 1,500 people with disabilities waiting for the assessment. In the whole Balearic Islands there are more than 13,000 files.
On the other hand, the data for Ibiza in relation to the waiting time for dependency is equal to the regional average: it is around 14 months.
In this context, the Councilor for Families, Social Welfare and Dependency Care, Sandra Fernandez, has pledged to accelerate the deadlines with a package of immediate measures. “We share this concern. This month we will present the shock plan. We cannot allow that there are so many desperate people and families looking for a solution,” she said.
Fernández’s visit included a meeting with the president of the Consell, Vicent Marí, and with the councilors of Social Services of the five town councils, as well as a participation in the Consell de Alcaldes, with the aim of strengthening institutional coordination.
The minister defended that the Government works “as a four-island Government, not only thinking of Mallorca”, with the intention of offering the same opportunities to all the residents of the archipelago.
How is the shock plan to be presented by the Government?
Fernandez defended that the plan “takes into account the reality of each island”. The goal is to attack the plug on several fronts so that the assessment – the key that opens the way to financial aid, resources and services – ceases to be an administrative odyssey in Ibiza.
The reinforcement of personnel will be the main lever. ” Reinforcing the staff, having more staff dedicated to disability and dependency assessments,” said the councilor, who also advanced “methodological and organizational improvements” to facilitate the work of the teams and lighten the procedures for users.
In addition to this boost, there is also an increase in services: “An increase in services to reduce waiting lists,” he stressed .
How the 2023 regulatory change complicated valuations
In May 2023, a new decree came into force that modified the scales for assessing disability in the Balearic Islands, adapting to Royal Decree 888/2022. This change involved several technical adjustments: new measurement criteria, more demanding medical reports, inclusion of social environment factors, and computer adaptation.
The problem, admitted by the councilor, was that the implementation was “chaotic and lacked foresight”. Staff without adequate training, failures in the digital tools, and a temporary inability to process the files as before caused that, after the change, very few applications were resolved for several months, accumulating a “ball” of pending files.
Co-management of residences
The Consell and the Govern are also advancing in the transfer of competences of residences. “We are working with the Consell for the transfer of the residences. We want to do it with a solid structure and for that a month ago we appointed an insular director… We are working on a co-management protocol for this future structure that involves an adequate transfer of competences”, explained Fernandez.
In parallel, the Govern has arranged 70 residential places in Ibiza which, once operational, should cut the waiting list for this service by half.
