• Health Up to 950 euros of salary increase and 300 minutes of attention: the keys to stop the strike in Primary Care
  • A Health in crisis (III) "We are facing the worst health crisis that the system has experienced in 40 years"

Suffocated the fire of Primary Care, but with the conflict of hospital doctors still alive despite the cancellation of the break scheduled for today, another new fire is born in the Madrid Health. The laboratories of six hospitals, and with coverage in 170 health centers and nursing homes in the area, have called three days of strike in April, before the "nonsense" working conditions that drag for years. These are the Infanta Sofía (San Sebastián de los Reyes), Infanta Leonor (Vallecas), Sureste (Arganda), Tajo (Aranjuez), Henares (Coslada) and Infanta Cristina (Parla), which bring together about 250 workers, with a crucial responsibility: their analyzes are the basis for diagnoses and medical decisions.

Cancer, malaria, pneumonia, legionella, leukaemia, sepsis, heart attacks, operations, prenatal conditions... whose detection will be suspended during the next days 11, 12 and 13 – only emergency tests will be done. "Nobody wants to strike, because it is a disaster for patients and public health, already sufficiently deteriorated to put more pressure. But we have already tried everything and this is going to be empty, "denounce the employees, some with more than a dozen years of experience, who prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

Under private management since the time of Esperanza Aguirre, in 2008, the fuse is now skyrocketing because in a year and a half they may lose their current positions, under the hiring of UR Salud, a UTE of Unilabs and Ribera Salud. Governed by the agreement of the private clinics of Madrid, they do not have the subrogation clause that other health groups do have -cleaning, laundry, ambulances ...-, so their job permanence is in question before the future contest. "We have been negotiating it for two years without achieving it. We don't have a guarantee and everyone looks the other way," they lament. Therefore, they request the mediation of the Ministry of Health – "which put us in this position and has not done to protect us," they complain – in front of the employers, on which a suspicion plans: that large companies want to attend the management of these clinical centers and prefer to integrate their own staff. "We're not asking for big changes. The Catalan counterpart agreement [signed in 2022] has this clause."

Just yesterday, before the last attempt at conciliation with the company, the Community did not appear and UR Salud continued in its position "of negotiating absolutely nothing". Because the quagmire of specialists and technicians goes further: they also maintain "the precariousness" of their laboratories. While the oldest ones retain the conditions of Sermas -to which they belonged until 2008-, although with salaries frozen for 12 years, the new ones are offered "shameful salaries, 30% less, with up to 100 hours more ...". In fact, the most affected are the technicians, with "base salaries of 18,000 euros, the worst schedules, without full vacations in summer or working alone in the Emergency Department on weekends, when the responsibility is enormous," they detail.

Added to the insecurity that supposes the absence of surrogacy, the result is that "every week companions are leaving. About 50% of the workforce has left," they warn. "And nobody wants to come. The company meets the minimum presence, when the population has increased a lot. As soon as there is a casualty, this is a horror of work." They conclude: "We are devastated. What we ask for is job stability and improvements so that colleagues do not leave. No one seems to care."

Future agreement

For April 19, the stoppage called between the doctors of Hospital Care also stands, after canceling the one planned today, "as a gesture of goodwill", according to the president of Amyts, Daniel Bernabéu, at the end of the negotiations, yesterday, between the Strike Committee of Amyts-AFEM and the Ministry. The meeting ended with commitments on the 35-hour day; increasing the value of guards and their apportionment with temporary disability; the transfer competition and the Emergency and Emergency Plan. Despite the "important rapprochement", there is a lack of "specificity" in the remuneration, although the intention of both parties is to "sign an agreement" in new meetings.

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • Esperanza Aguirre
  • Parla
  • Aranjuez
  • Arganda del Rey
  • Vallecas
  • Princess Leonor
  • Health
  • Enrique Ruiz Escudero
  • Strikes
  • Articles Ruth Díaz