«The province of Cádiz is very capable of facing the summer»

Andalusian healthcare, and therefore Cadiz healthcare, are in question. For months, the unions have been denouncing an “unacceptable” situation in the SAS workforce. For this reason, they have announced that on June 26 for three hours there will be a partial strike of all the centers and services of the Andalusian Health Service.

In the case of Cádiz, this week in Puerto Real a demonstration was held by the SATSE union where they warned of “a 30% reduction” in the staff of the hospital in that town, and warned that the province needs to hire ” more than 300 health professionals. Furthermore, they complained about not yet having a vacation plan, and showed their fear of the summer, a very critical period due to the massive arrival of tourists from all corners of Spain.

For its part, the Junta de Andalucía defends a “historic” investment in the province, with an endowment of 125 million in recent years, with which they have strengthened the workforce and improved the conditions of the workforce. The delegate of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Board in Cádiz, Eva Pajares, answers the call from LA VOZ to give the version of the Andalusian administration on the current panorama of the SAS at the provincial level. She talks about the announcement of the partial strike on June 26, the possibility of closing beds in the summer that the unions denounce and the lack of professionals to cover substitutions, among other issues.

– This Thursday the unions confirmed a partial strike of all SAS centers and services on June 26 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and speak of an “unacceptable” situation. What is the Board’s response to this matter?

– They have their point, and we have another. We do have to say that since we arrived five years ago and the counselor repeats it day after day, we have much more investment and we have many more professionals. In the province of Cádiz we started with 14,500 professionals and now we have more than 18,000. More than 500 professionals have been incorporated into the SAS structure, who were under the old COVID contracts, so we continue to increase the number of personnel, but they have also been given better salary conditions, the workforce has been stabilized, we will end up being stabilized at 98% at the end of this year, and we also continue to improve the facilities.

Right now we have the largest investment in the history of the Board in healthcare. Can everything be improved? Of course. We have problems? Of course yes, are we dismantling public health? Never. We are always committed to public health and we are committed as we are doing, with more investment, and with more professionals, and improving working conditions.

More than 125 million euros have been invested in the province of Cádiz, and we continue to invest, and we continue to make investments and infrastructures that have been promised for years and it has been this government that has put them into action. Obviously, we would like to do more, always.

– As you mention, the Board has made an investment of 125 million euros in Cádiz in the last five years, but it says that there are things that can be improved and that there are problems. What are those issues that can still be improved and what are the problems that the province has at the moment?

– Right now we are trying to improve accessibility to the Andalusian health system, we know that we have waiting lists, that we are working to reduce those waiting lists, both surgical and outpatient consultations, which is why we have the Health Guarantee Plan. This is one of the problems, but not only in Cádiz, I would say that it is a problem in Andalusia and Spain, because these waiting lists and accessibility come from several factors, and the main one is the lack of professionals. We have a large deficit of health professionals at the state level and at the Andalusian level.

There are autonomous communities like the Basque Country that have already said that this summer they are going to close health centers because they cannot find healthcare providers to cover the holidays. That is a super important point because, in addition, if a healthcare provider gets sick, who has their right to get sick and take days off to rest, we do not have reinforcements to be able to hire health workers in the stock market to cover it, that is an important deficit that causes us to have a deficit of neurologists, digestive specialists, anesthetists… and that goes into detriment to citizen service.

– In April, you confirmed the expansion of 366 workers in the SAS workforce and another 533 professionals who had been Covid reinforcements. However, the unions denounce that, for example, in Puerto Real it has been reduced by 30%.

– Here come the old Covid contracts. There were still some contracts left and we have now had 366 professionals in the SAS structure and we have renewed more than 500 professionals, but there are some professionals from the old Covid contracts who obviously do not join the structure, but go to the SAS pool. SAS.

– Waiting lists are another of the issues that have generated the most controversy. In a recent report, CCOO said that in June of last year there were up to 7,228 Cádiz residents who were waiting more than a year for surgical operations. How is the situation at the moment?

– As the counselor announced a few days ago, with the Health Guarantee Plan, more than 280 million euros have also been invested, of which 123.3 million euros were for overtime and opening operating rooms in the afternoons, on weekends, and so that our professionals could make this increase in hours, the number of patients pending an operation outside the deadline has already been reduced by 15.4%.

The other 119 million euros that we have left from the Special Guarantee Plan were for the healthcare agreements that have always existed, for many years, and that are necessary to remove many of the patients we have on them from those waiting lists.

– Autonomía Obrera denounces the closure of 30 beds in the Jerez Hospital for this summer and another 150 in the Puerta del Mar Hospital in Cádiz. Are there going to be bed closures in the province?

– The vacation plan that is presented every year is going to be presented next week by the counselor to the unions, which is why it is not yet closed and I cannot assure you of that, to be honest.

– How do you explain that professionals do not know their vacation plan until the second half of June?

– That explanation has its logic, we have been with a transfer course that has also stopped until the end of the summer, we are in the process of updating the stock market so that it does not affect our summer plan, so that may be why it has suffered a little delay, but next week this plan will be presented and we will all know it.

– Counselor Catalina García commented that the summer would be “complicated” due to the lack of 369 resident doctors who will finish their training in September and not in May. Is the information about Cádiz known?

– No, I don’t have it, to be honest, but it is a problem because those MIR should have finished in May and they could have been hired to do the summer substitutions, but due to the pandemic they started their MIR in September and will end in September. The counselor, in a territorial meeting with the ministry, requested some way in which those 369 doctors who finish in September could make the substitution under surveillance or that they could be legally stabilized so that they could work this summer.

– The counselor herself warned that in some communities such as the Basque Country they will have to close health centers in the summer. Are any centers going to have to close in the province of Cádiz?

– The vacation plan is presented next week, we work with all our efforts so that, obviously, we are already dedicated to that, to try to ensure that all the centers and all the citizens are served during the summer as they are served now, but that we do not close any health center.

– With the personal and infrastructure resources that exist today, is the province of Cádiz capable of facing the summer with full guarantees? We are talking about a period with a significant arrival of tourists.

– The summer plan is going to be presented next week, but obviously our province is very capable of facing the summer. It is true that in summer the number of tourists who come to our beaches, our fantastic beaches, increases, and that is why in the summer plan that is presented next week, the points in which they have to be reinforced will be reinforced.

– You talk about an investment of 125 million euros in the last five years. What are the actions that are planned in the short and medium term in the province?

– We have many. The second PET-CT that we are going to have in the province of Cádiz will soon be launched, which will be located at the Punta de Europa University Hospital in Algeciras, and it is fantastic news because this is going to be the only province who is going to have two PET-CT scans. We have an oncohematological day hospital that is also going to open in Algeciras, we have a new day center in Jerez, the works are underway and the works have an investment of almost 7 million euros, the center project is being drafted Virgen de la Oliva in Vejer, we also have the Camposoto health center (San Fernando), which has also been paralyzed for a number of years, and we are close to finishing them, we have the El Mentidero health center (Cádiz), which will also be a reality and is where the district unit and the health center will be housed.

We also have the new therapeutic community of Jerez, which is already under construction. We will soon begin work on the new ICU at the Puerto Real University Hospital and it will last approximately two years due to the size and importance of this work.

At La Línea we are going to make some improvements to the access to the Hospital and we are already in contact with the mayor to improve health care in one of the busiest areas of the city. I’m sure I’m forgetting things, but there are many investments that are going to be made in the province of Cádiz.