From January to May of this year, the Andalusian Nursing Council has registered 588 resignations of nursing professionals due to transfer in all Andalusian provinces
SEVILLE, June 19. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Government of Andalusia, Catalina García, assured this Wednesday that in the community there is 25% more nursing staff than five years ago – 35,000 professionals compared to 28,000 in 2018 – and has committed 1,300 more places in the system in the coming years as a result of the planned Public Employment Offers (OPE). Compared to 2018, when the nurse rate per 1,000 inhabitants stood at 0.57, in 2023, that rate was 0.70.
Faced with these “official figures”, the opposition -PSOE, Por Andalucía and Vox- – has disfigured the Ministry of the working conditions it offers to nursing professionals, causing them to flee to other communities. Thus, from January to May of this year, the Andalusian Nursing Council has registered 588 sick leave due to transfer in all Andalusian provinces. In 2023, there were 1,151 nursing professionals who left Andalusia.
Minister Catalina García has stressed that, in labor matters, the budget chapter has gone from 993 million euros in 2018 to 1,480 in 2023, which is equivalent to 49% more than five years ago – at a rate of around a 10% annual increase–. Likewise, she has placed emphasis on the “decrease” of eventuality in this segment of the Andalusian public health system, where it has gone from 14% in 2018 to 1% in 2023.
“There are ample arguments to maintain that both the labor and salary situation has improved” in Nursing, Catalina García concluded. This “scenario”, however, “differs from the perception that the nurses themselves have”, Inmaculada Nieto, from Por Andalucía, began her intervention, reproaching the Andalusian Health Minister for her “disastrous management of resources”.
In this sense, he has alluded to the precarious contractual conditions offered to the staff, “hard conditions” that, for example, make specialist nurses decide to leave Andalusia despite the “collective effort to train them,” Inmaculada lamented. Grandson. Along these lines, the socialist deputy Ángeles Prieto has maintained that “more nurses are not being hired because the money is being allocated to the private sector.”
“The problem is yours, not the Government’s; the responsibility is yours. The nurses are leaving because of their cuts and their disastrous management,” he said, recalling that “they have fired 5,000 health professionals” hired due to the pandemic. “Working in the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) has become a psychosocial risk,” she said.
On behalf of Vox, Rafael Segovia has stated that “there is no lack of professionals” and that what needs to be done is to increase the job offer and give “stability” to contracts that are “for days, weeks and months.” From the ranks of the PP, parliamentarian Beatriz Jurado has demanded that the left-wing opposition demand from the Government of Spain the financing that Andalusia “deserves.” Subsequently, the counselor urged the PSOE and Por Andalucía to “ask for fair financing” for the community after the Government of Pedro Sánchez is negotiating with Catalonia for “unique financing.”
In her intervention, the Minister of Health detailed that in 2018 the nursing staff was around 28,000, of which 21,000 corresponded to specialized care and around 7,000 to Primary Care. Currently and “for the first time”, the SAS has 35,000 nurses on its staff, which represents an increase of 25% (7,000 more in five years), of which around 25,000 correspond to specialized care and another 10,000 to Primary Care. “The maintenance of this increase comes entirely from chapter 1 of the Andalusian budgets, for which no contribution from European or state funds is received,” the counselor clarified and the Board included in a press release.
This increase in staff has allowed, in the words of Catalina García, to increase the rates of patients in both Primary and Hospital Care. According to the health indicators of the National Health System, published by the Ministry of Health and broken down by the Board, Andalusia has gone from having a rate of nurses in Primary Care per 1,000 inhabitants of 0.57 (the national average was 0.66), to 0.70 in the last year, “equaling the national average and allowing us to climb three places in the national ranking,” the counselor stressed. “That is, while the Spanish average has increased 0.04 points, Andalusia has increased 0.13.”
Furthermore, García added, “the rate that Andalusia had in 2018, 0.57, is the same as it was in 2006 and the same as it was in 2010.” On the contrary, the rate in 2014 was 0.61. That is, “in Andalusia from 2014 to 2018, nurses were fired because the ratio fell by 0.04 points,” he stressed. The rate of nursing staff in specialized care per 1,000 inhabitants has also experienced a “very significant” increase, since in 2018 it was 2.89 and in 2022, the latest data published, it is 3.33. That is, an increase of 15% in just four years.
In parallel with the increase in staff, the SAS is “facing a sustained improvement in its working conditions, with the main objective” of consolidating the workforce. Thus, Catalina García insisted, “when 2024 ends, more than 90% of The structural nursing workforce will have become permanent, thanks to public employment offers and transfer competitions. “Since we came to the Andalusian Government, we have recruited and filled more than 6,000 nursing positions and our intention is to continue growing, with more than 1,300 in future OPES in the new stabilization process,” he highlighted.
Along these lines, he recalled, 977 positions in group A2 of the former Covid reinforcements become SAS structural staff: 493 correspond to nurses, of which 411 are family and community specialist nurses and 82 case manager nurses. In addition, the hiring of 38 nursing positions, not linked to Covid reinforcement, has been authorized for the implementation of the new technological equipment that has been acquired in recent years for 678 million euros. In this way, he assessed, “we are making progress in complying with the different points of the Pact for the Improvement of Primary Care.”
Along with the increase in the workforce and its consolidation, there has been “advance in their remuneration”, and “although the salary is conditioned by various factors associated, for example, with years of service”, he detailed, “it is possible to see the improvement in the total expense of nurses’ salaries carried out by the SAS”. In 2018 it was 993 million euros; In 2023 it was 1,480 million euros. Therefore, an increase of 49%, only in 5 years. Practically a 10% annual increase.
This increase in remuneration translates, among other measures, into an increase of 150 euros in the specific supplement; in the improvements to age-adjusted cards, shift work and additional working hours, in addition to the implementation of accessibility plans related to extraordinary activity. The counselor added that “important efforts are also being made to provide and increase the catalog of Nursing specialties and profiles.” Regarding this, he referred to the creation of new specific categories (clinical and research nursing), which has been made public this month in response to “an old professional demand, which this Popular Party Government is going to make again.” reality, and that places us at the forefront”.