Madrid, Mar 16 (EFE).- The strike committee will call off the indefinite strike of Family doctors and pediatricians of Madrid Primary Care on March 17 from 08:00 a.m., by virtue of the agreement signed this Thursday with the Ministry of Health.
The document, which includes the “verbal pre-agreement” reached this Wednesday between the parties, contemplates organizational and remuneration measures with the aim of addressing “the insufficiency” of professionals in the categories of Family doctor and Primary Care paediatricians.
The measures are grouped into two lines of action: on the one hand, to improve working and organizational conditions, with the limitation of schedules and the debureaucratization of work, and on the other hand, to make positions attractive to new professionals, through the encouragement of positions that are difficult to fill in these deficit categories in the afternoon shift.
The agreement contemplates the limitation of the schedules to curb the care overload, with a time per patient of ten minutes in Family Medicine and fifteen in Pediatrics in a maximum of 300 minutes, as well as the absorption of attention to excess demand in additional modules.
From now on, there will only be the nominal agendas of the doctors (30 patients and 4 emergencies in Family Medicine and 20 patients and 4 emergencies in Pediatrics) and those who meet the excess demand with volunteers on the opposite shift with a remuneration for the extension of the working day of 50 euros per hour up to a maximum of 4 hours.
Health has agreed to pay a fixed supplement of 450 euros per month to all family doctors and paediatricians, replacing one in force until now (Assigned Health Card) that was linked to care for more than 85% of the assigned population, which, according to Amyts, not all doctors were paid (44 centers did not receive it directly) and whose payment was “unequal”.
A bonus of 500 euros per month will also be paid for those physicians who do pure afternoons and a plus of 300 euros per month for those who do three and four weekly afternoons.
From the signing of the agreement, a follow-up commission will be created, in which the Primary Care Management and the strike committee will participate, which will meet bimonthly.
The remuneration measures, like all the commitments included in the agreement, must go through the Health Sector Board and the Governing Council of the Community of Madrid “as soon as possible” for their corresponding approval and that, in order to to encourage coverage of the largest number of available places, they will be implemented prior to the incorporation of the Internal Resident Physicians (MIR) who finish their training in the month of May.