Nearly 400 health professionals do not accept new contracts at Hospital San José de Popayán.
At noon on Thursday, June 27, while from an interior patio of the San Jose University Hospitala group of union members raised slogans against the new directives, denouncing that they were forced to change cooperatives to hire their services and continue treating patients in the San Jose University Hospital of Popayan; Juan Carlos Arteaga, the new manager of the healthcare center, accompanied by the Administrative and Financial Deputy Manager, Juan Francisco Mora and legal advisor Juan Guillermo Cuenca, in his office, called a press conference to present the administration’s points of view and calm fears that the movement will be prolonged into a strike, and that as of July 1, when the current contracts with nearly 400 health professionals expire, they will be forced to implement a contingency plan to not interrupt the healthcare service.
He HUSJ It is an entity administered by the municipality and at the beginning of his term, Mayor Juan Carlos Muñoz Bravo appointed a new management team.
When the contracts of workers, employees and medical and paramedical personnel affiliated with 28 unions expired on July 1, the managers previously managed to negotiate with 24 unions, but when they asked the health professionals that they should contract with a new cooperative and not with which those he was linked to refused to sign.
“The institution has union contracts with 28 associations. Only four of these would not continue in the process, in agreement with what was stated last night when setting up a dialogue table in the presence of the authorities, in order to guarantee this protection of the fundamental right to work and access to health and life. . We were waiting for the directors of those associations to show up today to find out the result of that assembly they held yesterday, but they did not show up today. So there are only four organizations that would not continue. The others continue to provide their services in the institution,” he said. Juan Guillermo Cuenca Vidal, legal advisor to the manager.
The four cooperatives that refuse to change their association group together around 400 doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals. “The message that must be made clear to the community is that, while it is true, it is a very strong blow, since they are professionals with optimal human and professional qualities; within the exercise of administrative autonomy, the constitutional duty requires the manager to guarantee the effective provision of medical services for the user community of southwestern Colombia,” Cuenca Vidal reaffirmed.
In addition to refusing to contract with another cooperative, one of the main points of contention has to do with the levels of presence and control that the unions have in all aspects of hospital administration. In this regard, the legal advisor of the institution expressed:
“There are union organizations that have a presence in all the processes of the institution, basically the administration’s proposal was: -please continue with the processes of your specialties and transfer other processes to other organizations in the understanding of democratic exercise and plurality. what does the manager speak? but we see that it is not. They definitely say no, what if they don’t continue with the whole process then they won’t continue within the institution.
In the previous days, health professionals who refuse to contract with another cooperative have held several demonstrations, temporarily blocked Carrera 6a, and in the evening cultural events outside the neighboring medical school. “The doors of management to continue the dialogue remain open, the opportunity for us to continue at these dialogue tables has not been closed, on the contrary, we urge the organizations to continue with the exercise that we were developing yesterday,” reiterated the legal advisor.
In the event that the professionals continue with the movement and refuse to sign the conditions required by the new administration of the only existing high-complexity hospital in Popayán and the area of influence, to guarantee the service the institution’s directives, the departmental secretariat of Health and soon the Ministry of Health, must coordinate a contingency plan that includes the support of all hospitals, clinics and health centers in the city and neighboring municipalities so as not to put the community and patients who urgently demand services in vulnerability. .
