Madrid (EFE).- Primary Care Day is celebrated today in the midst of days of strikes and protest actions after a hot winter in public health in almost all of Spain, which has not yet been resolved.
Despite the agreements reached between some regional governments and the unions to improve the conditions of Primary Care -whose physicians continue to complain about saturated agendas and lack of means- health conflicts, to a greater or lesser extent, are still in force in some territories with indefinite strikes in Galicia, Ceuta and Melilla.
In the Community of Madrid, after months of strike in Primary Care, the conflict in the sector has not ended either and there are several strikes called in the coming weeks among health professionals.
While negotiations continue in the Valencian Community, the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA) has called a twelve-hour strike for this Wednesday, between eight in the morning and eight in the evening, after in the last meeting with the Board no agreement was reached.
Claim the care work
In the midst of this latent tension, the Forum of Primary Care Physicians, which brings together 8 associations, has convened a press conference in Madrid under the slogan “Primary Care with you from day one”, in order to “vindicate the work” of this level of care, a right that is “violated or seriously threatened in many autonomous communities”.
The reproaches also reach the Ministry of Health, for which the Independent Trade Union and Officials Central (CSIF) demands on this day from the department headed by José Manuel Miñones “an increase in funding and staff that protects this fundamental pillar of the right to health, which has especially suffered the consequences of the pandemic.
They recall that the covid-19 pandemic evidenced “the serious shortcomings of the National Health System (SNS), especially at the first level of care.”
CSIF clarifies that in 2019, before the pandemic, 42% of Primary Care patients were seen “the same day they requested an appointment or the next day”, while in February of this year said percentage has fallen to 20, 8%.
active strikes
Galician doctors have been on an indefinite strike since early Monday morning “before the galloping deterioration” of Galician health with demands, among others, such as the 35-hour work week,
The State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) in Galicia estimated yesterday Tuesday at 60% the monitoring called in the entire Galician public health system, while the Ministry of Health has lowered it to 14.8.
This week the health workers in Ceuta and Melilla resumed their strikes, suspended during Holy Week, and in the Community of Madrid, six privately-managed public hospital laboratories in Madrid (Henares, Infanta Sofía, Infanta Cristina, del Tajo, del Sureste and Infanta Leonor), are on strike until tomorrow called by the UGT.
According to the Ministry of Health, yesterday -the first day- it was seconded by 9.2% of the workers, while the works council estimates follow-up in the Central Clinical Laboratory at 65% and between 90 and 100% in emergency laboratories.
The Ministry of Health considers that this is “a matter that concerns the concessionary company -the temporary union of companies (UTE) Unilabs and Ribera Salud- and the workers”.