Madrid (EFE) delays and digitization.
Gabilondo has delivered this Monday in Parliament the “Annual Report” of the institution in 2022, which x-rays the main complaints of citizens that increased by more than 2,000 compared to the previous year, in his first management exercise at the head of the institution to the one that arrived at the end of 2021.
“Citizens have insisted with their complaints that administrations should not neglect health or essential public services, and also that digitization processes must be compatible with face-to-face assistance for people who, due to certain circumstances, have difficulty accessing to virtual or ‘online’ communication”, pointed out the defender.
The issues that most concerned citizens had to do with social security and employment, justice, public service, interior affairs, education, migration, public services, asylum, health and economic activity.
By geographical origin, the largest number of complaints came from the Community of Madrid (7,780), Andalusia (3,394), the Valencian Community (3,154) and Catalonia (2,975), the same communities as last year.
The institution processed 31,452 files -2,051 more than in 2021-, which gave rise to 2,498 resolutions to the different administrations: 739 recommendations, 1,392 suggestions, 365 reminders of legal duties and 2 warnings.
In addition, it personally assisted 37,210 citizens (36,152 by telephone and 1,058 in person), initiated 250 ex officio actions and received 125 requests for filing appeals of unconstitutionality and amparo before the Constitutional Court (on 11 state laws and decrees and five laws and decrees autonomous).
Regarding the work of the independent commission in relation to the complaints of sexual abuse in the sphere of the Catholic Church, Gabilondo has already begun to request information from the Spanish dioceses and has said that this is “the moment of the facts” and to verify what is the level of collaboration of this institution.
Health
Primary Care continues to accumulate complaints for delays of “several days and even weeks” to receive care in consultation with medical or nursing staff, particularly in large cities and metropolitan areas. Also, due to waiting lists for external consultations and diagnostic tests with delays of up to 30 months.
Health personnel, doctors and nurses come to the institution due to the workload they bear, before which the defender has recommended an increase in staff to balance the effort of the system at the Primary Care level.
Education
It cries out for the unequal access of Spanish families to the school canteen, whose coverage it asks to expand, and censures the Ministry of Education for denying scholarships to students whose families exceed the income threshold due to the fact that they are receiving social emergency aid.
Justice
The Ombudsman once again warns of the delays in the administration of Justice and asks that they be taken into account when designing the new bodies. He also calls for digitizing and providing more resources to the Central Civil Registry, one of the most saturated public administrations.
Given the permanent collapse in the management of nationality requests -140,000 people request it every year-, he calls for an effective approach to this structural problem. He has also recommended urgent processing for the files of Ukrainians.
migrations
It expresses its special concern for applicants for international protection and warns of their identification problems because it is a key factor in combating their vulnerability, of the difficulties in formalizing such applications and of delays in administrative procedures.
The Ombudsman once again questions the rejection of 470 migrants at the border during the attempt to jump over the Melilla fence on June 24, when at least 23 people died, against the criteria of the Ministry of the Interior and the Prosecutor’s Office, that she archived her investigation when she saw no evidence of crime.
Digital divide and citizen service
The prior appointment can be a preferential way of attention to the citizen, but not an absolute requirement, warns the institution, which considers it necessary to have alternative means to the electronic one to obtain a prior appointment to access service or registration offices.
In this sense, it has addressed the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) or the General Directorate of Traffic, among others.
It warns that the requirements that financial institutions place on foreigners to open a basic payment account mean that “at least part of the immigrant population” residing in Spain is at risk of falling into financial exclusion.
social policy
It has received many complaints about the delays in the assessment of disability by the autonomous communities, with waits of up to two and three years in the Canary Islands or Asturias.
Alert of the overflow of social services due to the increase in a large part of the interventions requested, but also due to the increase in their functions.
Environment
The defender has acted ex officio to supervise the implementation of the new measures established by the legislation on the removal of asbestos from facilities and locations that contain this toxic material.