The protest of doctors against Health increases

The Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA), Metges of Catalonia (MC), the Association of Doctors and Higher Graduates of Madrid (AMYTS), the union of independent doctors of Galicia (O’MEGA) and the Euskadi Medical Union (SME) have staged this Thursday their union to reject the draft of the Framework Statute presented by the Ministry of Health, while they have reported that in the coming days they will call for joint measures that will be “more intense” than those they have done so far.

“In the next few days we will define the calendar and the content of the upcoming mobilizations, which I can assure you will be more far-reaching than those that have been carried out so far. We have verified that four consecutive days of strike is not enough for the Ministry of Health,” explained the general secretary of the CESM, Victor Pedreraduring a press conference with representatives of the six organizations.

The representatives have stressed that the objective of this union between organizations is to coordinate all the actions that will be carried out, expectedly starting in February, to claim their own Framework Statute and representation in the Negotiation Area.

The unions do not rule out any type of measure, including indefinite strikeso that the Ministry reconsiders its position.

In the opinion of the medical unions, the attitude of the Ministry in recent weeks only evidences the null intention of Health to consider the demands of doctors and practitioners. Furthermore, they have criticized the agreement on the Health Framework Statute with the rest of the unions, something that they consider to be sold as a success “although it does not benefit doctors and whose real content is still unknown.”

In this context, the president of the CESM, Miguel Lazarohas advanced that a strategy of “maximum level of confrontation.” “Today is a great day for public health and unionism. We have achieved the union of the main medical unions in the country, so we can say that it is a gift from Three Kings that we deserve,” he added.

Thus, Lázaro has assured that doctors need a Framework Statute that recognizes the uniqueness of the group, such as their clinical leadership. Furthermore, in his opinion, the new document is essential to attract more doctors into the National Health System: “The goal is to recover the quality of public health,” has emphasized.

“It is not only a mobilization against the minister and the Ministry, It is against the Government of Spain and against all those politicians who have perpetuated during all these years the situation that the group is experiencing”, indicated the general secretary of Metges de Catalunya, Xavier Lleonart.

At this point, the vice president of O’MEGA Galicia, Mercedes Tallón, has pointed out that the measures will go against the Ministry of Health, but also the autonomous communities.

For the moment, Metges de Catalunya (MC), the Association of Doctors and Higher Graduates of Madrid (AMYTS), the Union of Independent Physicians of Galicia (OMEGA) and the Medical Union of Euskadi (SME) maintain the strike days called on January 14 and 15 in their autonomous communities.

The SMA and CESM will not be present at the protestsalthough its representatives have assured that they will support the demonstrations and that, from now on, the objective is for the actions of all the unions to be joint. In addition, he has reported that meetings with political parties will continue to explain their situation regarding the Framework Statute.

Negotiation with the unions of the Negotiation Area

For their part, in parallel, the union organizations with representation in the Negotiation Area, SATSE-FSES, FSS-CCOO, UGT and CSIF, have advanced this Thursday in the negotiation on the Framework Statute of the statutory staff of the health services and have achieved the commitment of the Ministry of Health to negotiate with the Treasury and Public Service the basic remuneration recognition that must accompany the new professional classification model, they report in a statement.

In a new meeting of the Negotiation Area, which was attended by the Minister of Health, Monica Garcia, The unions have continued working so that the draft Framework Statute Law includes a substantial part of the improvements demanded throughout the negotiation for all statutory personnel of the National Health System, in which they have managed to include notable advances in rights and general working conditions for all professional categories.

The meeting has led new advances, They assure in the statement, between both parties, that they have made it possible for the latest version of the text of the regulation being handled to include the latest demands of the unions, leaving pending, as an “unavoidable” issue, that the new professional qualification model entails the basic remuneration recognition that corresponds to the different professional classification groups in which the various categories that work in the SNS are integrated, structured according to their level of qualification, training, specialization and responsibility.

In this regard, the organizations point out that Health has collected its agreement proposal for the determination of the new basic remunerations of each classification group and has committed to transferring it to the Ministries of Finance and Public Function in order to begin a negotiation with these Government departments directly involved in making this demand possible.

After the meeting, the unions insist that, at this point, they could agree with close this phase of the negotiation of the draft Law of the Framework Statute, but as long as the remuneration agreement is approved. “It is totally binding, without a remuneration agreement, there is no endorsement of the Framework Statute on our part,” they emphasize.

In this sense, SATSE-FSES, FSS-CCOO, UGT and CSIF They emphasize that, without an agreement on remuneration recognition, in addition to not closing the agreement, the pressure and mobilization measures that they announced in their last press conference will be resumed.

The organizations present in the Negotiation Area, the only forum legitimized to agree with the Ministry on the working conditions of all statutory personnel, reiterate their willingness to continue negotiating to achieve a Statute that truly guarantees an optimal and beneficial regulatory framework for all SNS workers.

They also remember that The time to close an agreement on the Framework Statute is “now”given that its processing in the Congress of Deputies, once it is approved by the Council of Ministers, requires ample time. “A rule of such importance and significance for our always healthy environment has to be approved in the current legislature,” they conclude.