“Can anyone imagine the effect this certified letter had on us? Can anyone come close to the avalanche of emotions we are buried in after this letter? This is what Esther Ortega is asking for, who on April 15, 2020, at the height of the pandemic, showed up at the door of the Orpea Alcobendas residential complex and demanded to get as much money as possible from her father – with arranged accommodation for which she paid 600 euros per month – like her mother – in private accommodation for which he paid 3,000 euros.
The letter in question arrived last Friday. This is a certified email that removed “trauma”. It is signed by Cesáreo de la Puebla, deputy director of Benefits of the Government of the Community of Madrid chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and is required to pay 2,586.95 euros for five months in a retirement home where his father was not more present. , because he gave up his job to go to a day center, as it must be clarified in the public system, which managed the transfer. “It’s shameful and scandalous, and it shatters everything my mother and I have experienced. »
The chain of absurdities began in March 2020, when Madrid residences reached a peak of deaths that broke all records in Spain. The staff was not reinforced and the elderly people who lived there were not hospitalized. Nearly half of the staff were sick or on sick leave. The older ones couldn’t go out. Family members could not enter. And Esther, faced with the panorama of lack of control and neglect in which she saw her parents, went to the residence in person and demanded to take them home.
Although she tried to suspend her father’s payments while she cared for him at home, the Department of Social Services of the Community of Madrid warned her that if she did so she would lose the right to return to the residence when it passes. “We had to keep this place because it took years to get it, it’s an odyssey to get it,” Esther told elDiario.es in April this year. He therefore paid the 600 per month even though his father did not use the care, the bed, the food or the staff. During this time, he in turn paid for his parents’ care at home: food, overheads and hiring a person.
Although the Ayuso government could have suspended payments or initiated a moratorium due to the chaotic situation in the residences, it decided to continue demanding payments from families. The public system paid the entire revenue to private companies and entrepreneurs, as if nothing had happened and normal services had been provided 100%: more than 4,000 places were paid for without a resident to occupy them.
From residence to day center
In September 2020, after the worst of the pandemic, Esther decided to request a modification of the Integrated Care Plan (IAP) for her father and, instead of bringing him back to his residence, she requested a place in a day center, resigning so for its place in Alcobendas. The procedure was managed by a municipal social worker and was granted. His relationship with the residence had to end and it stopped there.
But Esther’s ordeal does not end there. In April 2021, seven months after he thought he was closing the chapter of anguish regarding his parents’ situation, a worker from the Community of Madrid called him to demand payment for several months. More precisely, until March 2021, when the alleged “death” of the father occurred. The same father who listened to the conversation next to Esther – alive – while she – astonished – explained that he was not dead and that he was no longer in this residence. He clarified the situation and filed a written complaint.
Manuel, her father, died a year later, in February 2022. Today, more than two years after the death of her father, the Community of Madrid insists and has contacted Esther again – this time, by mail certified – to claim the supplement. another five months, when he was no longer at the residence but at the day center. “They stole five monthly payments from him for a service that they did not provide and that they did not respect and now they want to bleed him five more, while he was no longer in the residence system . “These are unforgivable errors which, far from being corrected, are repeated.” Additionally, he accused the administration in a letter of “bleeding the dead and killing the living.”
The certified letter from Social Affairs insists that Manuel left the residence in March 2021 when he had left it in October 2020, and threatens that if it is not paid on time, “the debt will be transferred to Executive Collection, by applying an increase of 20% plus corresponding interest, to the amount required by this resolution. Esther, indignant, asks herself: “What percentage of extra should I give to the Community for everything it puts me and my mother through? She sent an official email and another complaint, in addition to sending a statement to the president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso: “Everyone I know who has experienced this trauma of the pandemic and how they handled it has had physical or mental consequences, us too. » Esther has decided, for the moment, not to pay.
Madrid demands half a million from loved ones
Between March and April 2020, almost 10,000 elderly people living in retirement homes died in Madrid. It is the region in Europe which is experiencing the highest number of additional deaths due to the pandemic, according to data from the Committee of the Regions. Of these, 7,291 died without being transferred to hospital due to the strict protocols of the Community of Madrid, which interrupted most referrals. The government chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso – which did not medicalize the residences – demanded payment for the month in which all these elderly people died, even though many did so without adequate assistance, with reduced staff until 40% due to sick leave and without minimum health measures, as reported by family members, workers and as highlighted in the citizen report of the Commission for Truth in Residences.
In total, since 2021 (start date of claims for the pandemic year) until the first months of 2024, the Department of Family and Social Affairs has sent 470 requests to the relatives of deceased elderly people to claim the money they must, according to the ministry. response to a question from elDiario.es via the transparency portal. In total, the Community is claiming more than 530,000 euros from these families over this period.
The Ministry of Social Affairs responded Monday afternoon that it was reviewing the file and “checking if there could be an error” in Ortega’s case. They did not respond if other errors or complaints were detected regarding the management of debts claimed from families.
