Politics Primary care: promise and sign agreements until you vote and then...
He is the general secretary of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), the majority among the doctors of all the autonomies, but above all he is a family doctor.
Gabriel del Pozo is concerned about the state of the National Health System (SNS), especially primary care, and acknowledges that today "the wickers do not exist to resolve the situation."
The only possible immediate solution to the exhaustion of the health workers who have been the protagonists of strikes and mobilizations in different autonomous regions in recent months "is to take care of existing professionals
to prevent the few that exist from leaving or retiring". He believes that, although health competencies are transferred to the communities, "the Ministry of Health must assume its responsibility in planning professionals".
As Secretary General of CESM, how do you see the situation that the SNS is going through and, above all, the first level of care? It is bad;
no, we are going to walk with hot cloths.
But, in addition, it is that we do not have the wickers to resolve the situation right now.
They will be given in a while, but right now there is none, so we have to work with what we have.
It is a situation that was seen coming from the economic crises, where the previous cuts were made in terms of MIR training, the planning of the needs of professionals was not made
... Later, the Covid pandemic has ended up aggravating the situation of physical overload that professionals have had, but also mentally.
Therefore, the situation is bad and we do not have favorable conditions to be able to solve them and get the rabbit out of the hat. It is constantly said that there are a lack of doctors, but for them to exist, as specialized training is regulated in Spain, they will pass several years.
What could be a more immediate solution?
The immediate solution is to take care of those we have to prevent them from leaving or leaving the system due to retirement
.
After the pandemic, a very high number of doctors have taken early retirement, even with a loss of pay.
That must be avoided.
More doctors are not going to leave because they are not churros;
They will do it in a period of 10 or 11 years.
The problem is that the ones we were going to need were not calculated;
No prospecting for the future was carried out, among other things because the Ministry of Health itself did not have a registry of health professionals, so if I am not clear about where I come from, it is difficult for me to see how I get to where I want to go.
That is why we have to take care of the doctors we have. In this situation, how? Something that is more important and that we can arrange is
more medical time
.
In other words, the doctor must have the time to carry out his duties, not work that can be done in other ways and in other ways, such as bureaucratic work, where a large part of his time is spent and at times when there is a lack of optional.
You cannot be paying a highly qualified professional such as a doctor and dedicating his time to doing administrative work.
What are the consequences of the situation that professionals are going through? The problem that our system is of lower quality is always suffered by the user, the patient.
I
may be overloaded with my consultation, but in the end he is the one who pays for it;
I can't serve you well
.
That is one of the questions that the Administration also has to consider.
It seems that the whole problem is a discussion between doctors and the Administration and it is not like that.
We work for the patients and the Administration does it for the patients and they have that right included in the Constitution. In all this climate of protests and strikes, what is the inalienable demand? Professionals want to work seeing patients with quality and For this, there must be a limitation of schedules and time so that what I have to do with the patient are my own issues, not bureaucratic issues that the Administration forces me to do.
On the other hand, doctors have to have better working and remuneration conditions.
Let's not fool ourselves,
We have had enough of the system being maintained at the expense of the efforts of professionals
;
when they are exhausted, the system begins to unravel.
That's what's happening.
It cannot be that we are forced to do guard duty that is paid for less than an hour of ordinary working hours. Why is an agreement not reached in Madrid, as has happened in other health services, to put an end to the strike? ?That should be answered by the colleagues from Madrid, but
it seems that there is a significant closure on the part of the Community of Madrid in the negotiation.
In order to reach an agreement, both parties have to have the intention of reaching it.
If one of them closes in band, as seems to happen with the Administration of the Community of Madrid, it is difficult to achieve it. What is your opinion when they label the strike in Madrid a political strike? Professionals have no interest in reaching the strike;
They have an interest in solving problems.
When that point is reached it is because there has been no dialogue or anything.
Nobody gets into a political strike and less a professional union like Amyts
Will a national strike be called? Claims and solutions have to be given by communities, since health powers have been transferred, but, obviously, the problems have arisen not only due to poor management in them or due to the In the absence of dialogue,
the Ministry of Health also has to assume its part
for not having done its homework in the planning of professionals. What do you expect once the May elections are over? Unfortunately,
health in this country only appears when there is an electoral process.
People are very concerned about their health system and it is very easy to sell the corresponding motorcycles to get the vote.
If we had more professional politicians, we would not have reached this situation, neither in health nor in another series of chapters.
I would like them to continue worrying when the elections are over and offer alternatives, solve problems and not waste time throwing things at their heads.
The professionals are fed up, but also that of the users, who see how the health system is losing quality, capacity for closeness and speed.
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