The CCOO trade union, representing staff at Torrevieja hospital, has called for the dismissal of the Management and Medical Directorate due to “the disastrous management and lack of organisation, as well as the poor communication with the legal representatives of the workers”.
The emergency service has experienced situations of collapse, due to the lack of medical personnel, organisation, care, and clear guidelines by the Medical Directorate, according to the union in a statement. “Right now there is an unsustainable situation, the staff suffers from a heavy workload and the users wait long hours because the observation room is full and the examination boxes are used as observation beds,” they add.
Both Primary Care, hospitalisation and the Radiology Service are suffering and the quality of care that should be offered is not being offered, they explain. Months ago, the union denounced the lack of medical staff, and “no solution has yet been communicated to us.”
They add that the Treasury does not validate the remuneration on time, so that the recently incorporated professionals are paid late and others do not receive the full payroll because the variable supplements are not paid correctly. In some cases, there are professionals who are charging up to 500 euro less. There are more and more complaints and claims that unfortunately fall on the administrative staff.
Meanwhile, the CSIF union has denounced in a statement the lack of structural positions that the Orihuela Health Department suffers and urges the Ministry of Health to put an end to the difficulty of hiring, especially in deficit categories such as specialist doctors and nursing staff.
“Our geographical area is the furthest from Valencia and borders the neighbouring Region of Murcia, chosen by some professional categories to work there as it has better salaries. Other professionals choose to work in other health departments by offering them more interesting contracts”, indicates Víctor Soler, CSIF delegate in the Department.
The CSIF point out that, due to the reversal of the Torrevieja Hospital, “the Ministry has focused on that department, creating many vacant or interim contracts to expand the workforce, something that is surely necessary. However, in the Department in Orihuela there are many workers with Covid contracts, and accumulation of tasks, as well as many doctors with shift contracts (used in many health departments) with worse working and economic conditions than a normal contract to carry out a daytime activity, different from the shifts”.
As Víctor Soler indicates, “if our workers are not offered better contracts, sooner or later they will end up going to other departments, as has recently happened with the migration of many professionals who worked in Orihuela and who are now in Torrevieja”. The shortage for hiring specialists such as family and emergency doctors, radiologists, anaesthesiologists, paediatricians, nursing professionals, among others.
At the same time, he adds that “a clear example of the lack of places is the Occupational Risk Prevention Service, which in the Department of Orihuela has had for a long time due to the lack of budget allocation for three senior technicians by the Ministry, while that in the Hospital of Torrevieja the budget for its endowment has already been created. The Occupational Risk Prevention Service, which works effectively, has been without a doctor for approximately a year due to not finding a substitute for the incumbent.
For CSIF it is necessary that this claim be taken into account in Valencia and that all these temporary contracts be converted into structural contracts, that is, the extension of the definitive places.
The Department needs greater economic investment in the improvement and expansion of the templates, also in the non-health categories (administrative, guards, computer scientists etc) where there is no problem in the job market for hiring.
Just over two years ago, the Ministry of Health outlined a plan to solve the problem of the lack of deficient categories, such as specialist doctors and nurses, in neighbouring departments or departments that are unattractive due to their geographical location, such as Orihuela, Alcoy or Vinaroz, among others, designing positions that are difficult to cover.
From CSIF it is considered that this measure would encourage many professionals to accept appointments in this department, since these positions would have a complementary or double score in the valuation of the time worked for the job market, as stated in the current regulations order 4/2019 of the November 14 and order 2/2020 of June 2 of the Ministry of Health. A petition claimed by CSIF to the General Directorate of Human Resources.
