Pamplona (EFE).- The Medical Union of Navarra (SMN) has presented a new counterproposal that includes the creation of a productivity supplement for all physicians of one thousand euros per month for fourteen payments as a condition to suspend the strike, a claim that the The Department of Health has already responded that “it cannot and should not accept”.
The union also claims to eliminate the work overload that the maximum number of patients in a consultation can only be exceeded with the express authorization of the doctor or vital emergency, with execution by resolution of the SNS-O Management.
If these two points are agreed upon, the rest “will be negotiated at a Salud-SMN joint work table, after the strike is called off, with a calendar closed on April 30, 2023, the date on which the agreements must be concluded and deadlines for compliance, “requires the union.
And they specify that the rest of the claims go through, among other issues, “eliminating” the exclusivity that affects doctors “without loss of pay” and for “full compliance” with the agreements signed in 2019, among which were completing the salary improvement to match Navarra with other “advantaged” communities and define loads, tasks, composition of agendas, overload Primary Care, hospitals and emergencies and Mental Health.
Health: “We cannot and should not accept”
Although “obviously”, responds Salud, “we cannot and should not accept the requirement” of the SMN regarding the productivity supplement, yes “we are convinced of the need and relevance of improving the basic salaries and working conditions” of the doctors “because they are justified” and thus be able to “improve the competitive situation with the other CCAAs in our environment”.
For this reason, he reiterates the proposal to raise salaries by around 400 euros per month with 14 payments “subject to negotiation in the current legal framework” and an improvement in bonuses for guards and tutoring of 10% and 20%, respectively.
Health also maintains the proposals it made on January 30, including the offer of a maximum of 32 patients per day in Primary Care and 12 minutes of face-to-face consultation, with a maximum of 300 care minutes to leave space for training and investigation.
With this platform, the letter concludes, Health offers to continue negotiating with the SMN other issues and pending issues that improve service and attention but “respecting, in any case, the areas of negotiation competence”, for which it anticipates that it will transfer the same to the sectoral health table convened for Thursday 9 and to the general table of the Foral Administration scheduled for 17, “as required by the current regulatory framework.”
Artundo shows his “surprise” and “disbelief”
The general director of Health of the Foral Government, Carlos Artundo, has shown his “surprise” and his “disbelief” at the counterproposal delivered this Monday by the Medical Union of Navarra (SMN), which includes the creation of a new productivity complement for all physicians a thousand euros per month for fourteen payments.
“It is evident that the position of the Medical Union has surprised us” and “we also have some disbelief in the sense that indeed in the midst of the strike now there are no longer 500 but rather 1,000 euros a month” of rise, Artundo pointed out. to the media after meeting with the Intersindical de Salud.
Artundo commented that the SMN’s counterproposal was made public this Tuesday and therefore “let each one judge, we are older, and each one can express their own opinion” about it.
Artundo bets on seeking agreements
The general director of Health has expressed his doubts about the “creative improvements” of the SMN in this negotiation and has stressed that “the best thing is that we stay in a mode of continuing to seek agreements, to continue seeking support, complicity, alliances, with the collective doctor and also the rest of the health groups and of course we are not going to move from there ».
“Our roadmap is to improve in this specific case the salaries and conditions of the doctors in Navarra, that’s where we are,” said Artundo, who indicated that from Health “we want there to be an agreement, of course, but it has to to be from reasonable positions».
Artundo stressed that “we are going to continue insisting on what we have proposed, because we think it is a good idea, that it improves the situation, that it improves remuneration and, ultimately, also the conditions of a group as important as the medical group for the society”.
“We continue in what we are, in agreements, in improvements and in trying to do things with a bit of seriousness”, he stated.
Meeting with the Health Inter-union
The Department of Health and the Intersindical de Salud, made up of LAB, SAE, UGT, ELA and CCOO, have held a meeting on Tuesday in which they have agreed to exchange proposals to improve the working conditions of the health collective and meet again next Monday .
At the end of the meeting, the Director General of Health, Carlos Artundo, told the media that in the meeting with the Inter-union, which has called an indefinite strike since February 15, there have been “points of agreement, points in that there is still no agreement, points of disagreement as well, but I believe that the spirit, at least from our perspective, is reasonable.
In this sense, he pointed out that at the meeting “the need and convenience of us agreeing, that we improve things” in Navarre public health has been shared.
«The same thing that we have been saying that the situation and conditions of the medical collective must be improved, the rest of the health collectives also deserve that we improve some things, that we even improve things that were pending for a long time and that is the intention, in In that sense, I would say that we are working,” he declared.
Artundo: “We want an agreement”
After emphasizing that “for our part, at least we are going to reach an agreement, we want an agreement”, Artundo highlighted the importance of improving the conditions of some groups that “logically have suffered, as we have all suffered, the whole of society, a pandemic like the one we have had, and I believe that now it is worth making an effort.
Begoña Ruiz, from SAE (Nursing Technicians Union), for her part, as spokesperson for the strike committee, stressed that “what we want is to work and not have to go on strike”, but at least “the channel of communication has been opened” this Tuesday.
Regarding the proposals advanced by Salud, he pointed out that the strike committee will study them internally: “In this union we have more than one thought, we have to assess it slowly and with that work and move forward.”
In this negotiation, the working conditions of various health groups will be discussed and therefore “they are more open” than others. “They are demands for labor improvements that seem important to us, but for more than one group,” he stated.
Intersindical: “It is a super important moment”
Ivan Irisarri, from LAB, also a spokesman for the strike committee, explained that the Inter-union is coming to this negotiation “with the spirit of working” and therefore “we hope that the Department has the same spirit of solving things for all groups”. .
“It is a super important moment, I think that Navarre public health has to make a plea in defense of it”, assured Irisarri, who has considered that “the citizens deserve that we reach an agreement and that the Department of Health does the effort”.
Regarding the position of the Medical Union of Navarra (SMN) to call a strike and negotiate with Salud alone, he explained that the Intersindical presented its proposals to all the unions, corporate or not, and SAE joined the initiative, while SATSE and SMN “excluded themselves because they did not agree with our demands and our way of seeing things.”
“We know very well that the SMN has another way of seeing, another way of functioning and, of course, another way of applying the decree of the public function and the laws and regulations that govern us,” said Irisarri, who has argued that ” the SMN can say what it wants”, but “we extended our arms to them and to SATSE and Afapna”