Ruiz Escudero 'skips' the ethical code of the community and supports the manager of the Fuenlabrada Hospital

• Hiring controversy The manager of the Fuenlabrada Hospital hires her son as a waiter and equates his salary to that of a health worker in the midst of a pandemic

Closure of the ranks of the Minister of Health,

, in favor of the manager of the Fuenlabrada Hospital,

.

The head of Madrid's Health Department endorses the hiring process that, according to

, has allowed the manager's son to obtain a permanent position as a logistics waiter at the hospital and receive a monthly salary of more than 1,800 euros, comparable to health personnel and much higher than the average wage stipulated for that professional category.

During a visit made today to Hospital La Paz, to inaugurate a pediatric intensive care unit, the Minister of Health

, but has made no mention of the compensation it receives.

"We have spoken with the hospital this morning and the information is that

and, therefore, we

regarding the hiring of the son of the manager", the counselor literally said.

As this newspaper reported, Paz Sarmiento appeared at the last OPE called by the Fuenlabrada Hospital after chaining successive contracts and uninterruptedly from June 2019 to February 2022, the date on which he acquired the status of permanent staff after that process. employment consolidation.

Paz Sarmiento's first contract was signed when her mother was director of Human Resources at the hospital

(a position she held since March 2017) and the OPE in which she achieved a fixed position was also signed by her mother, in November 2019, as director of Human Resources and deputy manager of the hospital, a position he had held in office since October of that same year, when

, his predecessor in office, was appointed general director of Social and Health Coordination of Sermas.

Although both the Fuenlabrada Human Resources Department and today the counselor himself have defended the transparency of the process,

, and that, if their merits and job seniority had been correctly assessed, the manager's son "would have been excluded from the selection process."

Ruiz Escudero's words represent a very clear accolade to Sarmiento's management, but also the

, by the highest health authority of the community, of the Code of Ethics for Senior Officials of the Administration of the Community of Madrid, approved in 2016, and that applies to him, as a counselor, and to Sarmiento herself, who, as a hospital manager, is considered a "senior position", and must therefore submit to the obligations of that code.

The fifth article of the code of ethics makes it clear that "a senior official [including hospital managers] is subject to a conflict of interest when the decision to be adopted may affect their personal interests", and adds that

, "including those of your spouse or person with whom you live in a similar emotional relationship and relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree of affinity."

In short, Ruiz Escudero does not see "favorable treatment" or a collision of personal interests in the fact that the first contract signed by Paz Sarmiento with the hospital, on June 21, 2019, was signed with his own mother, as director of Human Resources of the center, nor in that the summons order of the OPE that has allowed him to acquire the status of permanent staff was also signed by his mother.

Not a word about salary

What the Minister of Health has not commented on is the amount of remuneration received by the son of the manager as a logistics waiter, which is above 1,800 euros net since he obtained his fixed position, but which has exceeded on several occasions the 2,000 euros during some of the many temporary contracts that he has signed uninterruptedly since 2019.

Specifically, Paz Sarmiento, who, according to hospital sources, does not even work in the center itself, but as a displaced person in the Ministry of Health, receives a base salary of 609.24 euros (comparable to the base salary stipulated by the community itself for this staff), but he also receives, since September 2020,

(guards) above 1,100 euros, in addition to another "rotation" supplement, which he has received since November 2020 and which has reported him

.

According to the order of the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the Management of the Personnel Payroll of the Community of Madrid for 2022, the average salary (base salary plus supplements) of the management and service personnel of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) for group E (in which the logistics waiters are included) is close to 1,300 euros net per month, more than 500 euros below what Paz Sarmiento has already received as permanent staff in Fuenlabrada.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Enrique Ruiz-Escudero

• Fuenlabrada