Health announces the hiring of 5,000 professionals, a figure that for the unions is insufficient
The Ministry of Health announced yesterday the hiring of 5,000 professionals this summer to “guarantee health care” during staff vacations. The figure had already been advanced by the president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, on Tuesday during the debate on the State of the Region. This reinforcement is lower, by about 2,000 troops, than last summer, if the data from the Ministry itself is taken into account. In July 2021, Salud announced that there would be an additional 7,000 professionals that year to maintain assistance during the vacation period.
This reduction is due to the cut in Covid reinforcements. Last summer, Health had 2,500 additional health workers to face the pandemic, and 4,500 contracts were added to them for the vacation months. Now, the number of contracts to cover the months of August and July is somewhat higher (5,000), but the cut in Covid reinforcements in the spring leaves the health system with a balance of 2,000 fewer troops, always according to the figures that have been publishing the Ministry itself.
-
doctors
43 contracts this summer in addition to 210 professionals hired previously to reinforce the templates. -
nurses
1883. -
Nursing assistants
1,045. -
guards
582. -
Urgencies and emergencies
51, up from 49 last summer.
Health sources point out that “the situation that occurred last year due to Covid must be taken into account”, and they assure that the Murcian Health Service (SMS) still has “more than 3,300 more professionals compared to before the pandemic”, to which will now be added the 5,000 summer reinforcements.
They denounce that the hirings arrive “with delay” and “without planning”
The explanations do not convince the unions, who agree that hiring has been reduced in recent months in the SMS. “The data does not add up. Last summer there were finally some 8,000 contracts, and in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, 11,000,” warns Miguel Ángel Martínez, head of Primary Care at the CC OO Health Federation.
Satse points in the same direction. «The SMS has an order from the Treasury to reduce hiring since before Christmas. In addition, they are shorter contracts than in neighboring communities, which have offered three or four months for nurses, while here most are for one or two months. This has caused many to emigrate to other communities,” warns Luis Esparza, secretary of Satse’s Trade Union Action.
“At the last minute”
The criticisms are directed, above all, at the “delay” in the appeals, which affects the planning of hospital services and health centers. “Traditionally, the summer stock appeals started on June 13, with twelve professionals working on this. Now we have 36 people working in the exchanges and, however, the appointments did not begin until the 22nd or 23rd”, denounces Antonio Martínez, general secretary of the Health Professionals Union (SPS). “There is a problem of mismanagement. It is not about putting more human resources, because they do not even fit. Contracts are being drawn with many more delays than before, and with many more errors in valuations », he adds. For Antonio Martínez, the bottleneck lies in the change of model, with the implementation of a self-scaling system that, in principle, should speed up the entire process.
The SMS indicates that the difference is due to the “situation that occurred last year with Covid”
Miguel Ángel López, general secretary of the CC OO Health Federation, also speaks of delays. “The calls are being made at the last minute, with late planning. With doctors, the problem is the lack of professionals, while in Nursing an extraordinary procedure has been opened». “Contracts have begun to be offered later due to management problems in the job market, which is a disaster,” agrees Luis Esparza, from Satse. This whole situation occurs with an increase in Covid infections that raises fears of a new wave just in summer. The areas suspended permits and exceedances weeks ago. “The assistance pressure we have is very high, and the appeals have been made late, to the point that we still do not know exactly what we are going to have on July 1,” complains María José Hernández, Satse delegate in La Arrixaca.
Criticism also comes from the Medical Union (Cesm). «The summer plan does not exist, because it does not consist only in offering contracts to resident medical interns (MIR), but in prioritizing, in explaining how we are going to provide assistance, and in seeing how an emergency and emergency plan is articulated in the coast,” says María José Campillo, from the board of directors of this union.
More than 1,800 nurses
Of the more than 5,000 contracts for staff vacations announced by the SMS, 43 correspond to doctors, 1,883 to nurses, 1,045 to nursing assistants and 582 to caretakers. The rest belong to other health and non-health categories, such as physiotherapists, midwives, administrative assistants and trades personnel.
The 43 vacation contracts for specialist doctors “complement the other 210 professionals who have been previously hired to reinforce the workforce, including the summer months”, although the appeal process has not been closed, the SMS explains. In this case, “as in previous years, one-year appointments have been chosen, in order to continue the effort to retain the specialist doctors available in the Region.” The Community will initially allocate close to 30 million euros for the reorganization of assistance during the summer months, until September 30.
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