Doctors reach May 1 more fragmented but sure of their strength

The medical outrage reached its full effervescence on April 5, when doctors from all autonomous communities moved to the same door of the Ministry of Health for Protest against the Framework Statute. Although then fissures were warned in the union fabric: in the first line of the demonstration there were only leaders of Cesm y SMAand centrals of the magnitude of Amyts and doctors Apemyf had just constituted, a platform to press for a unique labor framework of the doctors. There was no atmosphere of tension, but a certain trench that has not relaxed over time. Consulted by Medical writing On the eve of May 1, Workers’ Daythese same organizations assume the “fragmentation”Although they deny that it has weakened its claims. On the contrary: “We feel greatlywe all ask the same ”, summary.

This same Wednesday, Cesm and the Andalusian SMA collected the first fruits of their pressure campaign aimed at improving the working conditions of medicine professionals, which covers from the limitation of the working hours to the price and better remuneration of the hours of guard. The objective is to develop a statute only for this guild, but, at the expense of what the negotiations can give of themselves, the Ministry of Health has opened (now) to incorporate a specific chapter of doctors into the framework. The department of Mónica García Search in this way to contain the irritation of doctors, who keep the strike on May 23.

I celebrated it Víctor PedreraGeneral secretary of CESM, at the exit of your meeting with the Ministry: “A negotiation line has been opened on all aspects that specifically affect our group,” said the Valencian president, which, to subsequent consultations of this newspaper, has denied that the divisions between centrals are weakening their message. “At all, we have a very high percentage of affiliation and commitment,” he said. The leader of the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions has recognized, however, a certain disenchantment for the “lack of support” of other organizations to the cause. “We have missed that reinforcement”he pointed out.

Something less optimistic is the vision of Patricio MartínezCesm honor president, which recalls the days of union and collegial frenzy that in the first decade of the 2000s gave rise to the medical profession forum. “We did not ask anyone where we came from but where we were going; for us it was an important instrument of claiming issues such as 24-hour guards, the medical-patient relationship or the health and safety of the worker itself,” he says. In this sense, he argues that the split of the centrals “is not the right way”: “I think we should take a step back and return to a negotiation agreed with all the doctors represented.”

“Apemyf comes to add, it is not an ‘alter ego’ of Cesm”

From Amyts (Madrid) and Metges (Catalonia), on the contrary, CESM urges to join APEMYF, the professional group for a medical and optional statute. A new wedge organization and also represented by the Euskadi medical union (SME), that of Navarra and another dozen centrals.

Both Ángela Hernándezgeneral secretary of the Madrid union (and spokesman for Apemyf) as his counterpart in Metges, Xavier Lleonartare reaffirmed in their decision to light a platform with the ability to negotiate with health Not to “be an ‘alter ego’ of Cesm” but “an instrument at the service of the medical profession and labor interests of workers.” “We have the perception that we are at a historical moment that can condition the future of the optional profession in this country; another thing is the way in which each one thinks how it should be addressed, that this is already a flour of another costal,” says Catalan.

In words of Ángela Hernández, the “fragmentation” that has experienced the union fabric of medicine in Spain is also “logical” consequence of the “transfer of the competence of health to autonomies.” However, it is convenient that the existence of different blocks does not imply an obstacle to their claims: “We are all very clear about what we want, which is a statute or a chapter that collects what we ask for,” he says. In fact, he argues that having “a unique voice” (as with nursing and satse) would not facilitate its objectives.

Lleonart, meanwhile, emphas in a clean, transparent and without impositions “. “We come to add, and we understand that the most appropriate way to make the perception of the medical profession as a whole,” synthesizes.

“Clear Objectives” regarding the Framework Statute

From Navarra’s medical union they agree that the position is that “effectively” prevails that “union is strength.” Alberto Pérezgeneral secretary of said group, has highlighted Medical writing That his adhesion to Apemyf is precisely in that sense, after they stopped being part of Cesm last February. “APEFYM is a professional group open to all associations and is so open that even unions that are currently part of CESM such as Aragon, La Rioja or Asturias, are also inside,” he said. In the same way, it has indicated that this initiative has “very clear objectives” as the improvement of the Framework Statute.

And since its constitution, Apemyf has managed to conquer spaces for dialogue with the Ministry of Health, despite not being part of the negotiating table. There are 15 medical organizations that constitute it, including four unions that are under the CESM umbrella, abandoning the line marked by the state management.

Thus, for Pérez, the ideal would be “to get a Platform in which all medical representation entities are“, which includes not only unions, but also to associations, groups and scientific societies.” Of course, that would make it very easier to pressure the administration, not only to the ministry, also to the autonomous communities, “he stressed to this newspaper.