The Basque Health Service (Osakidetza) has developed its now traditional plan to cut hours in health centers for the summer months. The overall figures of the document, prepared by the Subdirectorate for the Coordination of Primary Care on May 31 and to which this newspaper has had access, show a total of 126 outpatient clinics or offices that will see their care activity reduced, 83 in Bizkaia, 26 from Gipuzkoa and 17 from Álava. Of them, at least fifteen will close completely for a few days in the summer season. You can consult the center-by-center detail at the bottom.
The plan, however, leaves in the air possible additional reductions in seven continuing care points (the PAC, the intermediate service so as not to collapse the Emergencies), including those in Bilbao and Donostia, and in eight other health centers, as well as as in the entire rural area of Alava. The cuts are not simultaneous but they have already started, this June 3, as is the case of the Baños de Ebro office, in Rioja Alavesa, and will continue for more than three months, until even September 27. That is, they are seen with some condition for almost four full months.
Compared to 2023, more centers are affected but fewer are considering total closure. Last summer there were reductions in hours in a total of 117 resources and 43 closed at some point. The counselor, Gotzone Sagardui, then minimized the data by considering that more than 200 remained normal and that the population assigned to the closed clinics did not exceed 20,000 inhabitants. Planning currently foresees closures in the Álava offices of Artziniega and Luiaondo, that of Nabarniz in Bizkaia and those of Gabiria, Abaltzisketa, Baliarrain, Beizama, Ikaztegieta, Belauntza, Elduain, Gaztelu, Leaburu, Orexa and Txarama.
However, this 2024 there is a long list of clinics in inland Bizkaia in which days are planned in which there will not be “usual” hours, without specifying what the care will be like. There are almost thirty of them. Last year, the total number of health centers in the Osakidetza network was around 340, which implies that time changes affect more than a third of the group. The plan, however, contemplates some “reinforcements” at specific points, without giving more details. It is not specified if there are cases that have already occurred in recent seasons: that there are offices open but without medical personnel and only with nursing.
The general idea of the plan is that, as in every holiday period, the standard schedule is modified to leave it from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., that is, three hours less. This will happen in the majority of clinics in Bilbao, Vitoria or Donostia. The health center in the Old Town of Bilbao, for example, will be like this for almost all of July and August, as will some resources in Vitoria. But there are centers with even fewer hours. There are towns where there is barely an hour and a half of service scheduled on some days, others with three and a half hours and others with seven hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Historically, it has been argued that these “adjustments”, like the closure of hospital beds, are due to lower healthcare pressure. However, the real reason is the shortage of personnel due to the accumulation of vacations in an already stressed workforce in Primary Care. The cuts also occur at Christmas – precisely the time of year with the most cases of respiratory infections – or at Easter.
The presentation of this plan coincides with the final stretch of the Government of Iñigo Urkullu in office. The management of public health has been one of the great issues that has marked the final stage of the mandate. It is assumed that the current director, Gotzone Sagardui, will not continue in the new team that will be formed by Imanol Pradales. The new Lehendakari will take office on Saturday, June 22 in Gernika and it is expected that that same weekend the composition of his first cabinet will be known.
In a subsequent note, Osakidetza reported that “as in all vacation periods, it will adjust the schedules of Primary Care health centers during the summer holidays to make the maintenance of quality healthcare compatible with rest.” of its professionals and with the lower demand for services once winter is over.” Salud explains that “the forecast is that, of the 339 Primary Care health centers in Euskadi, 155 will maintain their days and schedules, 72 centers will advance their closing hours, mostly from 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.; 44 offices will close punctually some days during the summer months; In 58 offices, the planning of days and schedules has not yet been definitively finalized; and 10 offices will close throughout the summer, all of them are centers that normally only serve for one hour a week,” he explains.
“The lower demand for care in times of good weather and the reduction in the presence of respiratory diseases together with the extensive Osakidetza Primary Care care network, the continuing care points (PAC), the emergency and emergency services together with Home care guarantees health care for the Basque population in Osakidetza during the summer months, the Government insists.
“We do not share this way of proceeding as a union. It affects professionals and citizens. We found it striking that closures are no longer carried out in July and August: there are already cases in June. There are already some with different hours. This cannot become systematic. We have asked to talk about why we do not have professionals in Primary Care,” says Amaia Mayor, from the Satse union. They do not even believe that some offices where no changes are planned will end the summer with their usual hours.
“Today we have witnessed the umpteenth absurdity of the current management of Osakidetza. We have been summoned to an extraordinary sectoral table to present the cuts and closures in summer. “Practically all of Primary Care will be affected once again by these measures and the quality and provision of care will once again be compromised at its maximum level in the summer,” adds the LAB union.
They believe that “it is not an extraordinary situation” and that one cannot “try to normalize” a supposed “cultural change,” paraphrasing some words from 2022 by counselor Sagardui. “In addition, the meeting takes place at a negotiating table when the closures and cuts in numerous centers are already being applied, so we once again confirm the lack of willingness to discuss these issues with the social side. We cannot tolerate these cuts and closures when the right things are not being done to attract professionals and when a hiring model is being managed aimed at patching the large structural deficits in human resources,” says this center, which recalls that there are still areas in which time changes have not yet been defined, such as the rural area of Alava or the PACs of Bilbao or Donostia. “We call on the population to support any mobilizations that arise in response to this new outrage,” they ask.