Thousands of medical appointments at risk due to doctors’ strike

Canceled appointments, rescheduled surgeries, postponed tests… The doctors’ strike, which will last until Friday, is leaving an impact on patients that require non-urgent care, where the minimum services are not 100%.

Although not all the autonomous communities have yet provided official data – for example, some, such as Extremadura, assure that they will wait until the end of the week to take stock and others, such as the Valencian Community, will not provide them until Wednesday –, with the information available and based on estimates from past mobilizations, You can talk about thousands of incidents.

For now, regions like Madrid, Castilla y León, Aragón and Balearics They have already given information on the impact that the strike had on the different services during the day on Monday.

In Madridthey were canceled 7,377 outpatient consultations in hospitals472 surgical interventions (19% of those scheduled) and 1,021 diagnostic tests (15%). Furthermore, in Primary Care there were 4,540 users who could not be seen in consultation.

In the case of Castilian Leon, only in the morning shift, they were suspended 6,155 family medicine and pediatric consultations: Ávila 455; Burgos 595; León 1,668; El Bierzo 266; Palencia 399; Salamanca 987; Segovia 210; Soria 350; Valladolid East 301; Valladolid Oeste 343 and Zamora 581. In addition, 259 surgical interventions, 641 diagnostic tests and 4,048 outpatient consultations scheduled in hospitals in the Community were cancelled.

On the other hand, in the Balearic Islands, the Health Service cancellations in health centers amounted to 2,162 and in 77 the suspensions of surgical interventions – this Tuesday there would have been 3,300 consultations and tests and 95 operations.

From the Government of Aragon, Europa Press reports, they assure that they paralyzed 199 operations and 194 were carried out. This activity is normally rescheduled.

Data from the previous medical strike of the days December 9, 10, 11 and 12, 2025 They also suggest that the victims would number in the thousands. As explained in January in a statement by the Patient Organizations Platform (POP),based on the activity balances reported by different regional health services, it was estimated that the monitoring of these strikes had an impact at the national level in more than 450,000 external consultations canceled and between 10,000 and 12,000 surgical interventions postponed. Added to this was the delay of some 50,000 diagnostic testsessential for the early detection and monitoring of serious pathologies.

Now, the minimum services and the number of days of this strike – four in December, five in January – are different from those of the last strike, which makes it difficult still have an approximate figure of the impact. For example, in cases like that of the Valencian Communityscheduled surgeries are included in this category, which would have avoided cancellations of this type of appointment.

65AND MORE has contacted the POP to find out if they already have estimates, but has not yet received a response. And the Ministry of Health refers to the communities when providing this data. Therefore, we will have to wait until the end of the week to have more accurate data.

What does seem clear is that, despite the fact that everything urgent is insured, the strikes will have an impact on patients, many of whom are older. And, as the POP warned in January, “every consultation canceled It is not just a statistical data; “It is a delay in treatment or a diagnosis that generates distress and worsening quality of life, a loss of opportunity.”

It is worth remembering that, as explained from the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), which is part of the Strike Committeeon Monday they would have supported the strikes “around 90% in hospitals and 85% in Primary Care, taking into account the very high minimum services that have been imposed – 75% in non-essential services and 100% in essential services–”.

The Strike Committee is made up of CESM, the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA), Metges de Catalunya (MC), the Association of Doctors and Higher Graduates of Madrid (AMYTS), the Medical Union of Euskadi (SME) and the Union of Independent Practitioners of Galicia (O’MEGA).

These figures differ from those provided by the regions. For example, Catalonia placed the monitoring this Monday around the 5-6%Madrid, by 10%, Canary Islands, by about 16%, Galicia, by 17%, Extremadura, by 19%, Castilla y León, by 20% or Valencian Community, by 10%.

A Framework Statute of its own

The objective of this mobilization is to demand a specific Framework Statute, which is different from the one that has been negotiated between the Ministry of Health and the health and class unions. “The working conditions of doctors are so different that it is necessary that we have our own regulatory standard that guarantees the doctor labor rights identical to those of other professionals,” he explains to 65AND MORE the general secretary of CESM, Victor Pedrera.

“Being immersed in a common standard only increases that comparative grievance between the different professional groups,” he adds. And, he assures, in their case they have to face different shifts than the rest of the health workers or the famous guards of up to 24 hours.

By negotiating “directly”, he argues, they could have the possibility of reaching more satisfactory agreements on these points, something that has not been achieved so far. “Separating the doctor’s working conditions from those of other groups that have different regulations is the best guarantee so that these negotiations are not immersed in a common one that forgets the groups that are less important in number and marginalizes them,” he points out.

This newspaper has asked Pradera what should happen for them to cease their protest. As explained by the general secretary of CESM, “the first thing is to resume the negotiations that were unilaterally broken after the December meeting in which the Secretary of State was present, Javier Padilla, who made it clear that the ministry had no desire to negotiate with the Strike Committee and referred all negotiations to the Ámbito.

“We believe that this has been a mistake and our colleagues are up in arms over the refusal to talk to us,” he says.

This week of strike is the first of five planned until June. The following are scheduled for the weeks of April 27 to 30, from May 18 to 22 and from June 15 to 19.

Mónica García responds to the doctors

The Minister of Health, Monica Garciainsisted this Monday that the Framework Statute proposed by his department includes all “the material claims that depend on a global framework” and that he cannot add those that “invade powers” or other laws.

Asked in an interview with Better Late of ‘La Sexta’, García defended that it has been introduced into the Statute “better jobs for all professionals” of the health sector. “Now, there are some demands, such as remuneration, that do not depend on the Ministry, they depend on the direct management of the autonomous communities,” he argued.

Likewise, the head of Health assured that she agrees with some of the requests that the unions maintain, although she believes that “they could be conveyed in another way.”

“In fact, We recently sent a letter to the unions callers of the strikes saying that these demands, which I have called abstract, probably incorrectly said, but which remain alive, could be conveyed in another way,” he explained.

“We incorporate conciliation, we incorporate parity, we incorporate elements of working conditions that are totally current and totally necessary. What I’m saying is that it’s abstract. They are the demands or amendments that have remained alive. For example, doctors demand their own Statute which I do not refuse,” the minister stressed.

In that sense, García affirmed that the Statute itself can be presented by the same union organizations “tomorrow in the Congress of Deputies”, while insisting that “the laws in this country are not made only by the Executive.” “I have to make a law for the entire National Health System,” he reiterated.

At the same time, he questioned that they ask that they only sit at the negotiating tables with the medical unions calling for the strike. “We have closed an agreement with CCOO, UGT, CSIF and SATSE,” stated García, who recalled that they represent professionals who have voted for them in the union elections.

On January 26, Health and the unions SATSE-FSES, FSS-CCOO, UGT and CSIF announced that they had reached an agreement to approve the text of the draft Framework Statute law, which must now go through the Council of Ministers and continue with its parliamentary processing.

However, the Medical Strike Committee stated your rejection of this agreementwhich includes a specific chapter dedicated to the group, and confirmed that it would continue with its calendar of mobilizations, which begins this Saturday with a demonstration in Madrid. At 12:00 p.m., doctors from all the autonomous communities are summoned in the Congress of Deputies to march to the Ministry of Health and make their protests visible.