The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, sees the reduction of medical shifts from 24 to 17 hours as “unfeasible”, a measure that the Ministry of Health put on the table after complaints from a significant part of the profession that considers the current model. «We agree to improve the working conditions of professionals, but the serious problem we have in this country is the shortage of doctors. Reducing the on-call hours means an increase in staff,” Pedreño said this Monday when asked by journalists, during a visit to the Morales Meseguer Hospital. “We must be clear that the deficit of doctors in many specialties would make it unfeasible, right now, to carry out” the measure, he warned. “Neither in the Region of Murcia nor in all of Spain,” he added.
«There are not enough professionals to cover these needs right now [las que surgirían con la reducción del horario de las guardias], that is why we insist a lot that the deficit of professionals conditions this type of measures,” Pedreño continued. In the counselor's opinion, and given the lack of staff, reducing the on-call hours would only lead to “an overload” of professionals. In any case, he appealed to “consensus” between communities to study “the working conditions with which these schedules will be adjusted.” 3,000 doctors are on duty in the Murcian Health Service (SMS), according to the data provided by Pedreño.
A Health spokesperson clarified, this Monday afternoon, that there is no rejection of the measure as such, although this department insists that the shortage of doctors must be addressed first, while the possible reduction in on-call hours must be “evaluated.” ” and “consensus” between the communities.
The Ministry of Health itself is aware of the difficulties that exist in modifying the current guard model, and therefore what it proposes is a gradual change. It would be about “giving some flexibility” so that this “structural change” is applied “little by little in each of the services and each of the places where it can be implemented.” The first step would be to approve the “necessary regulatory changes”, through the modification in 2024 of the Framework Statute. “It is a measure that is complex and requires a restructuring of our National Health System (SNS),” explained the minister, Mónica García, last week. The reform would not entail a loss of pay for doctors, she clarified.
But the change is, for García, essential, because a professional who is on call on a weekend is working “60 hours a week,” and “this does not happen in any other profession in which one works legally.” For the Ministry, this is an »aberration« that is hardly compatible with European legislation. The profession itself has been warning about this for some time. Medical organizations such as the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (Semes) are firm supporters of addressing this debate. But, at the same time, everyone admits the difficulties that change entails with the current shortage of doctors.
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