The SOS of the health centers: "We can't do it anymore. We need help"

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"We need help.

We are exhausted and it is still summer.

.

Ana Díaz, director of the Rosa de Luxemburg health center, in the Madrid town of San Sebastián de los Reyes, is exhausted.

The queue at the entrance of the building increases as the day progresses.

«I have called by phone and they don't pick me up.

complains a woman waiting in line.

Of the 19 doctors that make up the staff,

a population of 36,000 people.

To all this we must add that they have to take on some patients from the V Centenario health center, which was closed due to a Covid outbreak.

«In the heat of increase of the cases by coronavirus,

Tell me where they are!

We are looking for resources among the WhatsApp groups, “laments Díaz.

"Let's go petar"

The situation is repeated in other autonomous communities and health

workers are posting

on social networks: "Warning to sailors: we are going to fire before the end of the summer," warns a family doctor from the Basque Country.

«We have the main problems in

.

They are trying to manage Covid at zero cost.

We ask the Government not to give orders but instructions and to provide us with tools and a budget.

We are at the limit ”, criticizes Cristina Sánchez, national head of Primary Care of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM).

If in the worst moments of the epidemic it was the hospitals that collapsed, at present, it is the Primary Care centers that are overwhelmed.

This summer has produced the perfect storm: the historical lack of staff has been joined by the

sick leave of staff due to coronavirus and the holidays concentrated in August, so that everyone was back in September.

The situation is chaotic.

Vacation and sick leave doctors are not replaced

The work overload is enormous, since Primary Care is managing

(18,000 in Madrid), in addition to carrying out the tracking tasks and granting employees sick leave when they test positive.

This saturation causes the rest of the patients with other pathologies to be relegated and

of the hospitals in worse conditions than usual.

Signs have been posted in some health centers such as:

We are doing everything possible to treat them.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The sign located in Castilla La Nueva, in the Madrid municipality of Fuenlabrada, went viral and spread like wildfire.

«The situation is chaotic.

We have

which are not replaced.

It is impossible to pick up the phone.

We can't cope and we don't have an area to isolate, ”says an employee of this center who does not want to reveal her identity.

Queues in Fuenlabrada. J.

BARBANCHO

Not only are there queues to get PCR tests done, but many patients come to health centers to make an appointment, since

.

If the situation is complicated in Fuenlabrada, in the Abrantes health center, in the Carabanchel neighborhood, it is dramatic.

There the poster reads like this: "In this health center

.

In fact, Carabanchel with 3,521 cases of coronavirus is one of the Madrid districts with the most infections, only surpassed by Puente de Vallecas (4,522).

Users do not give credit to this situation.

.

People go to their family doctor and after spending an hour and a half in the queue, they tell you that they cannot treat you, ”says Francisco Sánchez, who had to go to ask for a medical receipt.

In his opinion, the first wave of the coronavirus caught us unexpectedly, but now he does not understand that measures have not been taken to strengthen Primary Care, when all the experts have warned that it is the key to preventing and stopping the pandemic.

“This suggests

.

You cannot leave one of the neighborhoods with the most contagions without a health center ”, censors.

According to data from CCOO and Amyts,

currently

: of these, six are health centers and the rest are local clinics.

The unions warn that there are more and more closed centers in the different autonomous communities, where only telephone attention is given and not in person.

«It is tremendous.

The very year that we should be the strongest is when we are the weakest.

, but it has been increasing.

There are doctors doubling shifts and working from 8 in the morning to 9 at night.

The situation is grim.

The percentage that has been hired has been minimal, "says Miguel Ángel Sánchez, president of the Madrid College of Physicians.

The president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, promised to renew the contracts of the 10,100 toilets signed during the pandemic.

Of that number there are still 2,372 to be hired and

in the outpatient clinics, according to the CCOO complaint.

Bad hours, shift changes and precarious working conditions make Primary Care

to many professionals and many positions remain unfilled.

The unions regret that, given this serious pandemic situation, the Ayuso Government did not make an effort this year

and only offered them temporary contracts, with which many of them preferred to go to other communities or other countries with better terms.

To the decimated staff, we must add the

: 322 doctors, 393 nurses, 67 pediatricians and 259 administrative assistants, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

A third are temporarily disabled due to the coronavirus and the rest, for other reasons.

"A profound change"

But, to make matters worse, there are about 500 professionals who are in their homes and who

because they have diseases that are especially sensitive to Covid.

Faced with this situation, the Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, acknowledged last Friday that primary care needs

throughout the National Health System and "Madrid is also going to do it."

According to Ruiz Escudero, the regional executive is working "on an important change" that includes transformations

, as well as an action plan, which will be detailed "soon."

“It is evident that the health centers are working very hard to reinforce the capture of suspected cases and attend to confirmed ones.

We are aware of the situation our Primary Care is going through,

and the conditions of their work and we want to provide solutions, "he said.

What are you waiting for?

That Primary Care explodes and emergencies collapse again?

Marisa Fernández, from CCOO

Professionals in the sector feel abandoned for years by the administrations and Primary Care has become more and more precarious.

«Psychologically, we can't take it anymore.

They have left us adrift.

and that has its consequences ", argues Carolina Campa, delegate of the Amyts union.

From the Madrid Public Health Association (Amasap) they also criticize the construction of

, with an investment of 50 million, when the health centers have serious deficiencies.

This is health populism

.

It is not a good decision because it does not respond to the needs of our autonomous community.

It means wasting the money that is needed for other more urgent things ”, highlights Pilar Serrano, secretary of the aforementioned association.

Many fear that the worst is yet to come.

Marisa Fernández, head of Primary Care at CCOO, warns that

begins on October 15

and that the issue of the lack of professionals must be solved as soon as possible: «What are you waiting for?

That Primary Care explodes and the emergencies collapse again? ».

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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