After knowing the vacation plan of the Ministry of Health, which contemplates Reduction of hours in Primary Care and mobility of doctorsIn addition to the closure of 200 more hospital beds this summer, citizens are concerned about whether or not health centers will be open in the afternoons. This year, the regional government has made bobbin lace due to lack of templatea, aggravated by not being able to count on the more than 600 MIR doctors who finish their training in September, but care in the coastal areas and areas with greater tourist influx is ensured with the opening of health centers in the afternoons in the towns where the population is going to increase the most. Contrary to what happened at Easter and Christmas, when everyone closed.
Instead, in the interior of the province, in municipalities in regions not so close to the coast, and in the neighborhoods of large cities far from tourist centersusuallyl Outpatient clinics will remain closed in the afternoonsand patients will be able to go to the emergency care points of the corresponding department (PAC and PAS). Unless there are doctors who offer to double shifts, with which some health centers will open in the afternoons, as is the case in Mutxamel, according to health sources. Some of the interior points where the inhabitants increase will also do so.
Incentives
Health announced that there will be incentives, such as extra financial remuneration, for Primary Care doctors who, on a voluntary basis, assume the double the number of patients in your health center or another. Another measure to try to save the summer is the extension of the voluntary period in which professionals will be able to enjoy their holidays until November 30 to alleviate the exceptional situation of a shortage of doctors that the National Health System is facing this summer.
Health vacation plan: reduction of hours and transfer of doctors
According to sources from the department headed by Marciano Gómez, requests for the closure of health centers are made by the departments and are highly conditioned by holiday periods of the professionals.
So, In the period between July 1 and September 30, the hours of Primary Care centers with metropolitan, urban and interior locations that have a continuous emergency care point (PAC) will provide scheduled care from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. ; and from that moment on, the center’s ongoing care point will come into operation, which they consider will cover citizen assistance.
Coast zones
As an example, in the department of Torrevieja, which is coastal, They will open in the afternoons for ordinary consultations as it is a tourist area. However, those in the Orihuela area will close and The PAC and PAS urgent care points will remain open from 3 p.m.. The same in the health centers of most of the municipalities of Alicante and Elche, where they will not be open in the afternoons from July 1 except in the aforementioned PAC and PAS. In the Elda area, which also includes the towns of PetrerSax, Villena or Novelda, the health centers will close in the afternoon from July to September 15; and the aforementioned urgent care points will open in the evening and at night.
Rosa Atiénzar, general secretary of the Federation of Health and Socio-sanitary Sectors of CCOO-PV, points out that all health centers that have a continuous care point, that is, Emergencies, close in the afternoons. «The rest depends on the staff’s vacations but there are more than 200 health centers (in the Valencian Community) and more than 400 auxiliary offices and 750 family doctor contracts have been planned, not even one per center. If they do not approve reinforcement modules, they will all close from three o’clock.
Fewer doctors
Víctor Pedrera, family doctor and new general secretary at the national level of the State Confederation of Medical Unionspoints out that the difference between this summer and last is fundamentally the lower supply of medical personnel to replace the staff in the absence of the MIR, 600 doctors who have not yet completed their training.
Except for coastal areas, in general health centers will not open in the afternoonshe points out, unless the Ministry of Health’s offers of dubbing modules to doctors take effect, that is, doctors who voluntarily accept a double quota of patients, although in summer it is complicated even in exchange for compensation.
Thus, Pedrera considers that the most sensible thing is to reinforce the coastal area Well, points like Benidorm multiply their population by three or four. In these places there will be assistance 24 hours a day since the Emergency care points will open morning and afternoon, and at night.
The unions believe that Health should have presented the vacation plan in advance
Auxiliary centers
Within the Health vacation plan there are some aspects that are already defined. Starting next Tuesday, June 25, the Dénia health department will begin providing health care in the main tourist enclaves of the Marina Alta, with the opening of seasonal auxiliary clinics on the Arenal beach in Xàbia and La Fossa in Calp, two additional healthcare points in these coastal areas that will remain open until September 6, from Monday to Sunday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. uninterruptedly. The one at Les Marines de Dénia is scheduled to begin service at the beginning of July.
Hot summer in Spanish hospitals: almost 10,500 beds will close due to lack of professionals
They are three of the five auxiliary centers that will open in the province this summer as reinforcement to the usual offer. The fourth is that of Urbanova in Alicante, which will provide care from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday to Friday starting July 1, while, outside of these hours, emergencies will be attended to at the Alicante-Sur Health Care Point (PAS). The fifth is Casa del Mar, in Santa Pola. On the other hand, this summer the Ministry of Health has opted to Do not attend those in Muchavista and Santa Pola Platja.
Accessible care
The opening of the summer clinics guarantees, as explained by the Generalitat, “a accessible health care to the population during the months of greatest tourist influx and, consequently, of greatest healthcare pressure.
They are healthcare points that “bring healthcare to residents and visitors of coastal areas during the summer months and They avoid trips to the health center in the basic area. In this way, attention is also expedited in cases of emergencies or minor incidents.
Centers that are reinforced
The vacation plan includes promoting health care in 37 health centers, integrated or clinics in the province of Alicante with reinforcement actions by increasing staff: Teulada-Moraira (office that provides health care all year round and extends its hours until 6 p.m. between July 1 and August 31); Bolulla; Confrides; Confrides; Abdet; Guadalest; Tarbena; La Nucía; Polop; Orxeta; Relleu; Seal; Callosa d’en Sarrià; Altea; l’Alfàs del Pi; Finestrat; Finestrat La Cala; Cala, Foietes, Rincón de Loix and Tomás Ortuño, in Benidorm; Almassera and the Cala in La Vila Joiosa; El Campello and Coveta health center, in this same town; Coveta; San Juan Beach; Cape Huertas Alicante; Albufereta; Elche Los Arenales; downtown Santa Pola; Santa Pola Gran Alacant; The marine; Tabarca Island; Guardamar; La Loma (Torrevieja); Thousand Palm Trees (Pilar de la Horadada); Orihuela Costa and Torre de la Horadada. None of them will close in the afternoons from July until September 30.
With this, doctors consider that “the summer will be weathered as best as possible. In a bad way and with overloads in Primary Care”, and with the fear that the emergencies could suffer.
He Minister of Health, Marciano Gómez, regrets that the Minister of Health, Mónica García, remains impassive in the face of the serious deficit of doctors that affects the National Health System this summer and “continues without providing solutions and without assuming her responsibility.” Gómez has stated that the regional councilors are not asking the minister to assume powers that do not correspond to her, “but rather exercise what you do have: make appropriately trained professionals available to communities autonomous so that we can hire. The counselor focuses on the contingency plans for the summer that the Ministry requested from the different departments to coordinate the lack of professionals and the situation of final-year MIR students. «That document that he promised to present with measures to alleviate the shortage of doctors this summer does not exist. We are not asking you to make interpretations of the regulations regarding what final year resident doctors can or cannot do, we ask that you make doctors available to us to be able to hire». Gómez pointed out that the Consell “has done its homework” in aspects that fall within its powers, and “we have planned attendance for this summer, although Without sufficient human resources it is difficult to manage.”.
He full council approved the contract yesterdayr 16.3 million euros (without VAT) and two years of duration for the natural gas supply in 60 centers dependent on the Ministry of Health to supply them with heating and hot water in order to meet health needs. The file has been divided into three lots that contemplate the supply of natural gas to health centers of the Ministry of Health and include the two consortia. In addition, the health centers of the Health departments of Manises and Dénia, when the Department of Health assumed direct management of both departments.
On the other hand, the autonomous government yesterday approved the proposed agreement that agrees on the application of the temporary program to combat the feminized wage gap in the health sector corresponding to the 2023 financial year for which the Ministry of Health has allocated a game of 2.5 million. This agreement will benefit technicians in Auxiliary Nursing Care (certain remuneration groups), Pharmacy, person responsible for Equality, Medium Food Safety Technician, Laboratory, Environmental Health, Drug Addiction, Health Planning and Inspection and Medium Health Planning Technician, among others. .