The group denounces that politicians “are not fulfilling the commitments made in 2020 to allocate all the necessary means and resources to safeguard health”
More than 8,000 nurses from all over the country, also from the Region of Murcia, demonstrated this Saturday in Madrid, according to the organizers, to demand that all public administrations and political parties put an end to the “serious situation of abandonment and precariousness suffered by our health system”, and that they improve their professional and working conditions to be able to provide “the attention and care that more than 47 million people in our country need”.
Summoned by the Nursing Unit, made up of the main organizations and associations that represent the interests of the 325,000 nurses who work in Spain, health professionals have shown their “deep discomfort” and “great concern” because, in their opinion, the situation of the system Spanish health, far from improving, “has worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic”, since public administrations “are not fulfilling the commitments made in 2020 to allocate all the necessary means and resources to safeguard our health”, they lament in a release.
In the massive demonstration, in which patients, users and citizens have also participated, the nurses have carried posters that read ‘Nurses for Health’, ‘Our Health is not for sale; defends itself’, ‘Deficit budget punishes users’ or ‘More resources and fewer speeches’, with which they wanted to capture the absolute need to implement the measures and actions that improve and strengthen the health system.
The main demands of the protesters were to increase public funding for Health, to guarantee patient care safety with an “adequate and sufficient” supply of nurses in all health services, to put an end to attacks on professionals, to include nurses in Group A, without subgroups, and put an end to precariousness and temporality.
The demonstration began in the Plaza de Jacinto Benavente in Madrid and, after passing through the Congress of Deputies, ended its route next to the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, where the nurse Araceli Santos read a manifesto in defense of Health and the rights of professionals. In his speech, he recalled that in July 2020 the group of political parties agreed in the Congress of Deputies to implement more than 200 measures and actions to improve the Spanish health system and the conditions of its professionals, and almost two years later, “nothing has been done.” “They have been ignored and forgotten in a clear display of contempt for our health and its professionals,” Santos lamented.
As he indicated, public administrations and political parties “are not interested in talking about waiting lists, the permanent overload and care tension, the chronic and structural deficit of nursing staff or the rest of the problems and deficiencies that affect health care.” and care provided to more than 47 million people. “After years of continuous cutbacks in resources and means, the regional public administrations have not increased their respective budgets as would be necessary to guarantee optimal, fast and quality care in all health services,” he denounced.
“Zero commitment to nurses”
The president of the General Nursing Council (CGE), Florentino Pérez Raya, also took the floor to state that “Spain has some of the best nurses in the world. Some professionals who have always given everything for patients, before, now and especially during the pandemic, when they risked their lives to provide their assistance, many times, without safety material ».
However, he added, “the commitment of governments and politicians to the nursing profession remains the same as it has been for decades: zero. No matter your ideology, and we will not allow it anymore. Today the entire profession is here united and we are not going to stop until we get politicians to provide real solutions to claims that are born to respond to the care needs of patients and guarantee their safety ».
For his part, the president of the Nursing Union (Satse), Manuel Cascos, pointed out that the demonstration, “unprecedented in recent history”, shows the unity, strength and commitment of the health professional group “the largest in our country”. “Thousands of nurses, from all the autonomies, have taken to the streets and we have made it very clear that we have plenty of reasons to demand the improvements that we and the more than 47 million people in our country need,” he added.
“Affronts” to the profession
The president of SATSE stressed that “we are not going to accept a single more affront to a profession that always gives one hundred percent and that is not going to tolerate any further setbacks or cuts.” And he concluded by stating that “nurses have shown themselves in the demonstration as they are, committed, consistent, strong and, above all, full of reasons.”
On the other hand, the vice president of the National Association of Nursing Directors (ANDE), Mercedes Ferro, stressed that people’s health care is “an individual and collective right.” “It is a social asset and an indisputable value on which the quality of life of citizens is built and guaranteed, which is why health or socio-health services require competent planning, management and direction in each area,” she pointed out Ferro.
“Worthy” contracts
Finally, Mari Lourdes de Torres, general secretary of the Spanish Union of Scientific Societies (UESCE), stressed to the protesters that the nurses, once they have demonstrated “their professionalism, resistance and not failing society”, require ” a regulated and stable profession with decent contracts that encourage them to continue caring and thus prevent the abandonment and emigration of young professionals to countries that recognize and remunerate their work.
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