Pamplona (EFE).- The general director of Health, Carlos Artundo, has affirmed, after receiving the latest counterproposal from the Medical Union of Navarra (SMN), that he has the feeling that “we are approaching positions and quickly”.
“We understand that there has been a will to get closer, a will to bring positions closer,” he told the media after meeting this Monday with the Intersindical de Salud.
Artundo has considered that “it is very clear” that, from the remuneration point of view, “the budgets give for what they give and we are also talking about the money of all taxpayers, of the people who through taxes finance us and put in our hands something for us to manage”.
The remuneration issue, he underlined, “is not open, there are no possibilities, and I think that everyone can understand at the moment in which we are, about to close Parliament and with a recently approved budget, that all this has its limitations.”
The Director General of Health has stressed that “people, patients, citizens, many doctors too, are in a hurry for us to close the agreement with what is there as soon as possible for the good of all” and to end the indefinite strike convened by the SMN since February 1.
Strengthen Primary Care
In relation to the negotiation with the Intersindical de Salud (ELA, LAB, SAE, CCOO and UGT), he commented that “we are talking, at this stage of the debate, in February 2023, about reinforcing public health services, about reinforcing what that we can the Navarro Health Service-Osasunbidea ».
And that objective, he said, requires an increase in salaries and the situation of doctors, because “Navarra cannot lose capital and stop being competitive in relation to other autonomous communities.” The salary increase, he added, “is perfectly argued and justified.”
In his opinion, “concrete measures that can improve the situation of the rest of the health professionals in Osasunbidea are also necessary, which is also very important, especially in relation to the package of measures to reinforce primary care.”
“If we ask anyone in our society, at this time everyone knows that here and in the rest of the communities and in the rest of the countries, an important weakness is the situation of Primary Care”, declared Artundo, who highlighted that “That is where we have to put the effort at this time of the end of the legislature to try to improve, strengthen public health services.”
“The strike is not good for anyone”
Regarding the call for a strike, he has indicated that in a negotiation process “you must always have open listening, open channels”, to “try to agree and prevent or avoid a strike that is not good for anyone and especially for the citizens”.
After affirming that “we will be trying to reach agreements until the last moment”, Artundo pointed out that “we all have to be aware of what moment we are in, in which there is very little time left to close Parliament, in which we are finishing the legislature” and therefore it is necessary to focus on “what can really be done”.
“We put ourselves in the scenario of there being no strike, what we want is for there to be no strike”, because “that does not benefit anyone”, he assured.
Strike committee: “Bad news”
The spokesmen for the strike committee of the Intersindical, Iván Irisarri and Begoña Ruiz, have opined after the meeting that there was “bad news”.
Irisarri has indicated that, “on the part of the Department, we have seen a closure in talking about their proposals and not even looking at ours.”
For the unions, he said, “there are two red lines that we do not want to cross, one is exclusivity and the other is the professional career for all health workers and non-health workers”, but the Department “has no intention of even studying them”.
Therefore, he commented, “we are going to go on strike and we will have to apply enough pressure for our demands to go ahead and for the Government of Navarra and the parliamentary groups to establish the measures to be able to implement this type of demands.” ».
Ruiz has denounced for his part that “there is no new proposal, it has been a repetition of the first meeting, with which, if they do not intend to negotiate, we have to get up” from the table.
From the Department, he commented, “they have once again reiterated the claim they had in the first meeting, with which we will have to negotiate, agree and each one get off something, but they have not said anything new.”