The doctors of the public health will go on strike next December 9, 10, 11 and 12, a historic call driven at state level and supported in the Balearic Islands by the Medical Union (SIMEBAL). The protest, which will affect health centers and public hospitals, is a response to the new Framework Statute proposed by the Ministry of Health, which the doctors accuse of ignoring the uniqueness of the profession and maintaining a situation of “labor discrimination” that affects 177,000 doctors throughout Spain.
SIMEBAL stresses that this is the first national medical strike directed against a minister who is also a doctor, in reference to Monica Garcia, head of the Ministry of Health. For the group, the “chronic lack of specialists” has become “the Achilles heel of the public system”, aggravated by the overload of care and structural precariousness.
Among their demands, the unions are calling for a specific professional statute that will allow them to address their real needs:effective measures for family reconciliation,occupational health protection and compliance with current regulations,withdrawal of the incompatibility regime,guaranteed breaks recognized as time worked,a minimum working week of 36 hours, staff resizing and two days off after on-callduty.
Although the strike will affect healthcare, the doctors apologize to patients and maintain that the protest “seeks to improve the quality of care and reduce waiting lists,” something that, they remind us, depends on sufficient funding, realistic planning and responsible management.
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The union makes it clear that this mobilization is not directed against the Balearic Minister of Health, Manuela García, but against the central government and, especially, against the Ministry of Health. The final message summarized by the conveners is forceful: “Without doctors there is no public health”.
