Lourdes Velasco |
Madrid (EFE).- The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing a report on Spanish Primary Care with the collaboration of the Ministry of Health and the autonomies, within the framework of the global concern for precariousness, temporality and the lack of of personnel that threatens the sustainability of Spanish and European healthcare in the short term.
In a context of alarm due to the precarious situation of health professionals throughout Europe, the WHO is carrying out a study of the case of Primary Care in Spain for which it has already exchanged opinions with Health, professional associations, unions and various autonomies , although for the elaboration of the report the WHO will speak with all the autonomous departments.
Throughout the meetings, the WHO has detected widespread concern about the situation of human resources but also proposals for solutions and plans to alleviate the problems, as explained to EFE by Tomás Zapata, WHO regional health human resources advisor. in Europe.
The problems in human resources have reached such a magnitude that on March 22 most of the European countries and the Asian region adopted a joint declaration at the request of the WHO that calls for political action and a commitment to protect, support and Invest in health and care workers.
Tribute to professionals with photos of health centers in Castilla-La Mancha
In this meeting organized in Bucharest (Romania) 49 countries participated, including Spain. The WHO paid tribute to health workers with an exhibition that valued the work of professionals, in this case Spaniards since the photographs were taken in health centers in Castilla-La Mancha.
With many of their professionals, WHO technicians discussed their professional needs and concerns. This is the case of Carmen Baz, a 66-year-old Primary Care doctor who coordinates the Buenavista Health Center, in Toledo, and who, together with her colleagues, recounted her day-to-day life at the health center.
Carmen Baz explained to EFE that she sees public health deteriorating more and more, especially since there is no replacement for the toilets of her generation, those of the “baby boom”, who are gradually leaving their jobs and, nevertheless, they are not replaced.
“Primary Care has been abandoned for many years. No resources are put in, there are fewer and fewer Primary school doctors and in the last MIR there were vacant places because our specialty is a bit degraded”, Carmen Baz complains.
This doctor is about to retire and laments the cocktail of having a shortage of resources and doctors in the face of an increasingly aging and, therefore, more demanding population.
The WHO focuses on the labor discontent of toilets
Tomás Zapata, a WHO human resources expert who participated in the organization of this international meeting, assures that the problem will worsen in the coming years, when many retirements are expected. “At a European level we have more doctors than ever, what happens is that the increase in the demand for services has grown even more than the number of doctors”, he says.
The situation of work overload has led to an increase in cases of depression, stress and anxiety in health professionals at the European level and also in Spain. “There is a significant fatigue, burning and disaffection. It is one of the key elements that must be resolved”, explains Zapata.
According to this expert, professionals need economic recognition, but not only that: “You have to provide the necessary working conditions so that workers can develop their vocation. They need motivation, the most important thing is to give them time so that they can attend to their patients as they want”.
Félix Gómez is another of the toilets whose face appears in the exhibition with which the WHO values the role of toilets. He has worked at the Toledo University Hospital for seven years and is now 33.
He explains his situation to EFE this way: “Nursing is a profession that is little recognized by society and even by the hospital itself, but I really like the job. In the ICU I help others, both to cure them and to die. The personal reward that I take home is much greater than what my salary gives me.”
The World Health Organization shows its concern that these problems expressed by these professionals in a private capacity are extensible and practically generalizable. “The healthcare workforce crisis in Europe is no longer an imminent threat. It is here and now ”, alerts that organization, which urges countries to face the challenges of health personnel.
Spanish toilets are no exception
In fact, the strikes and protests that have taken place this winter in various Spanish autonomous communities are not an isolated phenomenon.
The WHO recalls that in France, for example, doctors and nurses went on strike last November with the participation of more than 100,000 health workers.
Two months earlier, in September 2022, more than 6,000 nurses in Ireland went on strike over low pay and poor working conditions.
In Germany thousands of workers went on strike in August of that year for similar reasons, and in the UK strikes and walkouts by doctors, nurses and ambulance staff have severely affected the health system for months.
In response to these challenges, the Bucharest Declaration adopted last week calls for political action to improve the recruitment and retention of health workers, improve the supply mechanisms of health workers, optimize their performance, better plan and increase the public investment.