SEVILLE, June 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Health spokesperson for the Socialist Group in the Andalusian Parliament, María Ángeles Prieto, denounced this Thursday that the Andalusian public health system has “9,000 fewer professionals” since Juanma Moreno (PP-A) governs, something that the counselor has denied. of Health and Consumer Affairs, Catalina García, who has defended that the workforce has increased by 25,000 health workers in said stage.
It was in the course of a questioning regarding Andalusian healthcare that the aforementioned socialist deputy addressed in the plenary session of Parliament to the counselor, whom María Ángeles Prieto began by reproaching that “Andalusian healthcare is worse than ever, with fewer professionals and more waiting lists than ever”, despite also having “more budget than ever”.
The representative of the PSOE-A has also stressed that this past Wednesday a “general strike” of health professionals in Andalusia was recorded “for the first time in decades” that had “80% follow-up” and was “a success”, and has accused the Andalusian Government of having “lied to professionals, breaching the Pact for Primary Care” and of not having updated the employment pools despite having “promised” to do so.
Along these lines, Prieto has told the councillor that “there are more than enough reasons for her dismissal” and has reproached her for carrying out “constant manipulation and lies” as well as “cuts in staff”. “They are suffocating professionals without replacements and at the same time they sell that they are making 37,000 summer contracts”, criticised the representative of the PSOE-A, who has described the situation of Andalusian health as “very serious” after the Junta “cut” “7,000 professionals at the doors of summer and not replacing 80% of those who go on holiday”, which causes “an unprecedented crisis in the SAS”, she warned.
Prieto has denounced that, since the PP-A governs, the Board is dedicating itself to “suffocating public health”, and has accused the counselor of having “caused the largest flight of “health” professionals in our history to others. autonomous communities”.
FIGURES
Regarding the number of professionals that make up the Andalusian public health system, the representative of the PSOE-A has pointed out that in the electoral roll of the SAS union elections of February 2019 – a month after the departure of the PSOE-A from the Government of the Board – “109,000 professionals” were counted, while in the census of the last union elections, in March 2024, “there were 116,000 professionals, including 9,000 from public agencies” who would have to be subtracted to “compare the figures of the SAS”, and which would give a figure of “107,000 professionals”, that is, “2,000 less” than the 2019 figure, as he stressed.
However, the socialist deputy has warned that this data corresponds to the month of March, and on May 31, “7,000 professionals were left out” of the system, so today there are “9,000 fewer professionals in the SAS than in 2019.” “, as denounced by María Ángeles Prieto, who has called this information a “shameful scandal”, and as “reprehensible” that the PP-A Government has “systematically lied”, both “to the professionals” and “to the citizens”. “, he added.
“With these data, the propaganda and lies have ended,” and “only for this reason you should leave your responsibility to the head of the Ministry,” María Ángeles Prieto snapped at Catalina García, whom she also reproached for the fact that the Board “has 10,000 million euros without executing” because the ‘popular’ people who govern are “terrible managers” and “incapable of working for public health”, and “all their time and all our money is dedicated to the private sector.”
“This is the drama of public health,” stated the representative of the PSOE-A, who maintained that the strike this past Wednesday “marks the beginning of the professional and social protest, because people can no longer tolerate any more destruction, “Professionals no longer tolerate more abuse, more deception, more manipulation, more deterioration of public healthcare for the benefit of private healthcare.”
“This is over, counselor,” concluded the socialist representative, who has urged the Ministry to increase the SAS staff so that Andalusia gets closer to “the average of the rest of the autonomous communities”, and that it “dignifies the conditions so that our professionals stay in Andalusia and so that those we have lost in recent years return.
COUNSELOR’S RESPONSE
Catalina García has replied to the socialist parliamentarian that, according to the data published on the SAS website, her staff now has “126,000” professionals, and has encouraged the socialists to go “to a court” to report “if they believe that These data are false.”
Furthermore, the counselor has defended that Andalusian public health professionals “have better conditions now” than when the PSOE-A governed, and “we are in a process of undeniable improvement based on the analysis of the data, whether it comes from the Andalusian Service of Health or the Ministry of Health”, although “of course there are problems and incidents in healthcare” in a community of “8.5 million people”, he added.
García has defended that now, “unlike” what happened in the socialist period, the Board “recognizes the difficulties and problems and puts measures in place”, but Andalusia could act “faster if it had the opportunity to financing that other autonomous communities have and that we are all obliged to claim,” he added.
The counselor has also claimed that during the past year 2023 “more Andalusians have had surgery and more external consultations have been carried out than in any other previous year”, and all of this “with the lowest percentages in concerts” with private healthcare “in the historical series”.
“For this reason, the data kills your story,” he snapped at the socialist deputy, to whom he also replied that the Moreno Government “has increased the number of SAS professionals by 25,000 more” in relation to 2018, placing the total number “above 120,000”, and has denounced that the PSOE-A Executive threw “7,733 professionals” from the Andalusian health sector “on the streets” between 2010 and 2018.
He has also pointed out that the nursing workforce in Andalusian healthcare has increased by 25% more since 2018, to 35,000 professionals, and has defended that the healthcare workforce has seen its “working conditions” and “financial remuneration” improved. .
Likewise, the counselor highlighted that, “when the year 2024 ends, the SAS will have stabilized 94% of the workforce”, which is why she questioned whether there is “precariousness” in the Andalusian health system, and has stressed that has “renewed the contract of 3,177” health workers “from June 1 to September 30”, which is why it has called on socialist parliamentarians to be “more objective” and to speak with “real data”.
In her second turn, the representative of the PSOE-A has also questioned the counselor’s “slogan” “about the lack of doctors in Andalusia”, because, “according to the Andalusian Council of Medical Associations, in the next ten years to retire 5,741 doctors” in Andalusia, which is equivalent to “about 600 a year” that could be covered by the residents who are trained annually in the community, as stressed by the socialist deputy, who has denounced that “there is no MIR system that stop the bleeding that they intentionally cause” from the PP-A Government.
At the close of the debate, the counselor attributed to the Ministry of Health a “flagrant responsibility for six years” for “not having listened to the communities, and for not having put extraordinary MIR positions on the table” as the Board has been demanding. “since 2019, especially for family doctors,” he stressed.