Doctors are striking this week for four consecutive days to protest against the draft Framework Statute – the law that regulates the working conditions of health personnel – being prepared by the Ministry of Health and to demand a standard … which integrate the specificities of their profession. Although the strike was called in mid-October, it now coincides with a delicate period for health centers and hospitals, with increasing demand for care due to the resurgence of respiratory viruses such as influenza. The context, some voices believe, can harm them, but the cause, they say, deserves it.
Last week, after meeting with the Ministry of Health, the National Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) and the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA) decided to continue the strike in the face of the “insufficient” changes that Mónica García’s department proposed to make in its draft Framework Statute to try to stop the mobilization. The possibility of an own standard is still not on the table and, although they recognize that Health has made “improvements” to bring the positions closer, they continue to consider them rare. “We want our own space for negotiation and we insist on our own status because we want the doctor’s conditions to be negotiated by the doctor and not by the union forces,” says Víctor Pedrera, general secretary of CESM. The doctors’ organizations say they do not feel represented in the group currently negotiating the law, where, in addition to the ministry, there are the UGT, CCOO, CSIF, Satse and CIG-Saúde.
Pedrera is convinced that patients understand the reasons why they are striking. “Society is well aware of the working conditions of doctors and it increasingly understands our fed up; we do not think that this can change public opinion,” he says. And even so, he defends, the impact on health centers will not be as serious as could be expected due to the minimal services put in place by the autonomous communities. “They passed through seven villages and provided a minimum service of 50%. “They are worried that follow-up will be high, and as we are close to Christmas, they have put a bandage on the wound beforehand.”
But the truth is that for several weeks, in health centers and hospitals, we have seen an increase in the number of patients suffering from respiratory viruses, and professionals believe that with the medical strike, this pressure will increase. A significant part of primary care doctors will support the strike, predicts Leovigildo Ginel, coordinator of the respiratory working group of the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen), which will make assistance in practices difficult, generating collapses and referring many visits to emergency services. Once the strike is over, there will also be accumulated work, which involves not only treating the sick, recalls this doctor, but also bureaucratic tasks such as managing sick leave and sick leave, very frequent during this viral season.
More attacks
And Ginel fears that the image of doctors will be affected, as well as that attacks, particularly verbal ones, will increase when patients arrive at health centers and encounter problems or long waits to be treated. “In general, the population loves and respects their doctor, but when he arrives and he is not there, things change,” he emphasizes. The important thing, he says, is that patients know that doctors do not strike on a whim, but for issues as relevant as the duration of work up to 70 and 80 hours per week that many have to assume, the non-payment of pension for on-call hours or the low remuneration for them, below the normal working hour.
“The first to be affected by the strike will be the doctors themselves, but we must do it with respect for dignity. This will mean anger among the population against doctors and a significant workload, because the following week we will have to resolve everything that we did not do the previous week,” continues Ginel.
Latest Health proposal fails to cancel strike, with “insufficient” improvements
In emergency departments, problems today mainly occur in the afternoon, with more patients with flu and therefore longer waiting times. “Cases are increasing very sharply and we are seeing an increase in care of around 20%,” says Juan González del Castillo, coordinator of the Infection group of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (Infurg-Semes).
Although emergencies suffer every year at this time from the influx of viruses, this time, with the strike, it will be more visible, estimates González del Castillo. “Without a doubt, if the patient can’t get to primary care, they will need an answer and will go to the emergency room,” he predicts. The strike by doctors who work in hospitals will also affect these services, because if fewer discharges occur due to lack of staff, there will be fewer beds available to admit patients, who will stay longer in the emergency room, he warns.
Over the past week, the rate of respiratory infections in primary care has increased to 643 cases per hundred thousand population, with increasing incidences of influenza, Covid-19 and bronchiolitis. Professionals estimate that it will increase further in the coming weeks.
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