Summer is approaching and with it unions They fear a moment of difficulty for primary care. With three weeks left until July begins and with it the vacation period, the truth is that the Junta of Andalusia … The program for hiring professionals to replace those on rest has not yet been defined, and worker representatives insist that it will not be enough to guarantee decent care in many positions.
The unions’ estimate is based on what has happened in other years, because the Health Counseling has not yet communicated the policy that will apply,
This is what the person responsible for Health believes. CSIF union in Córdoba, Josefa Díaz Ontiveros, who admits that there will be “few substitutes and low-minimum staff.” For her, this summer she will only keep her contract this summer 255 professionals of the reinforcements that were hired to meet the peak in demand that was created during the Covid pandemic.
Closing
«It is totally insufficient to respond to all the needs in the health centers and hospitals in the province,” he highlighted. Like the others, he assumed that between July 1 and September 15 the health centers in Córdoba and the province will be closed in the afternoon.
Patients would not be left unattended, because they could go to the health services. Emergencieswhich in Córdoba capital are those on Avenida de América, Castilla del Pino and the Reina Sofía hospital, but that will also mean that they will be more saturated.
For Juan Muñoz Gavilán, secretary of the Permanent Commission of the Córdoba District, the problem is aggravated in a workforce that has many casualties to cover. In Córdoba capital there are 126 places, of which 46 are now uncovered, and in the province the situation is even more delicate. Why aren’t they covered?
According to this professional, who is in a situation of Active Retirement and who represents his colleagues for the UGT union, the problem is the conditions, much lower in Andalusia than what happens in communities as close as Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Murcia or Madrid. Many doctors and health professionals prefer to leave to earn more and have more stability. “They don’t have loyalty here,” he summarizes.
For Juan Muñoz, the contracts that the Board makes for this summer, and which are not yet known, will not be such, since it will be decided to renew doctors who were already working with short contracts. “They are substitutes without places whose contracts are renewed, also for the summer period,” he says. Thus the position is not consolidated and the job continues to be precarious.
“The places are not consolidated and people go to communities with better conditions”
The same point of view holds Inmaculada Romerogeneral secretary of the Medical Union of Córdoba, who assured that “there will be no new contracts, because those that were in place are being renewed permanently,” and that means that “there will be no increase in template». What’s more, for her, there will now be even fewer doctors than in February, due to the retirements that have occurred.
The approaching summer may be “worse than last year”, and for the general secretary of the Córdoba Medical Union, her colleagues are already “in a dantesque situation».
It will be a general situation throughout Córdoba, but especially in two types of primary care centers: those that have a lot of demandin Córdoba capital, and those with difficult coverage, in rural areas with few inhabitants, which are unattractive for professionals.
“Why do they hire month by month, if what is needed are five or six year contracts?”
Inmaculada Romero
Medical Union
Among the first, the workers’ representatives pointed out those of Fuensanta, Levante Norte and Levante Sur, in addition to the Castilla del Pino center. A very high volume of patients come to them, who will have to see how the space might not open in their usual schedulel, and would also have fewer doctors.
In the province there could be problems, they insisted, in the health centers of Bujalance, Hornachuelos and Palm River, but especially in those furthest from the capital. Inmaculada Romero, the general secretary of the Medical Union of Córdoba, explained that for doctors they represent a great sacrifice in the form of travel and discomfort “which is not compensated as it should”, because the economic plus is very small.
«The consequences for staff and service provision will be terrible»
They are towns where residents from up to five or six villages, and there may be only one doctor, one nurse, one ambulance driver and one orderly. “They are alone in the face of danger and they have a hard time, because they can provide care, but sometimes there are medical procedures that need two,” he insisted.
José Damas, general secretary of the Health and Socio-Health Sectors Union of Workers Commissions of Córdoba, pointed out, for example, the clinics in the Fuente Palmera area, where there is a large population spread out.
The Guadalquivir district, in the Palma del Río area, may be one of those with the most problems, and in the southern part of the province the biggest problems would be in Doña Mencía and Priegowhile in the north of Córdoba, “the problems are already endemic.”
Transfers
He agreed with his colleagues that the situation will be difficult from July 1 to September 15, with towns that will have a doctor one or two days a week, but also with a problem that will be added to those already suffered in primary care. : the incorporation of more professionals through a transfer competition, which will cause many to change the place where they provide their service.
The remedies that the Andalusian Health Service intends to implement to alleviate the lack of professionals do not seem good either. An example is that it is intended that the Resident Internal Physicians (MIR), that is, professionals who are training in a certain specialty can act as family doctors. «We believe that it is something that cannot be, because they are still in the process of training», he says, while denouncing the fact that family doctors are expected to perform pediatrician functions due to the lack of specialists.
“MIRs cannot act as family doctors, because they are still in training”
The result is that health care is possible, according to all the sources consulted, by “the goodwill of professionals» And there is no shortage of obstacles, as Damas pointed out, because in several districts all professionals are obliged to work on duty, which causes many to prefer to work in other places, for another administration, due to the poor conditions.
