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Date Published: 18/11/2022

Murcia Primary Care doctors stage mass demonstrations in defence of public healthcare

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Physicians in the Region are also threatening an indefinite strike if working conditions do not improve

Murcia Primary Care doctors stage mass demonstrations in defence of public healthcare

A wave of discontent is moving through the overstretched healthcare system all across Spain and Primary Care doctors in the Murcia Region have decided to make a stand, agreeing at a meeting on November 17 to stage rallies outside their clinics at 9am every Thursday in addition to a large-scale demonstration planned for December 18 that will wind through the streets of Murcia.

The Cesm Medical Union has called on the people of Murcia to join in the protest “to defend public health,” and to demonstrate against the imminent “collapse” of the Primary Care sector in the community.

Addressing hundreds of healthcare professionals at the headquarters of the College of Physicians on Thursday, the Union also threatened an indefinite strike beginning on January 7 if the regional government does not guarantee an improvement in working conditions.

The threat of industrial actions comes days after the same Medical Union announced it will take the health authorities to court over their new 061 rapid intervention ambulance initiative which will be staffed exclusively with nurses and emergency technicians, a move that doctors fear will put patient safety at serious risk.

With the aim of recovering “quality care”, Murcian primary doctors demand several “urgent and immediate” measures: improved financing for their services, defined contracts for specialists in Family and Community Medicine and Primary Care Paediatrics, a larger workforce, increased security at healthcare centres and a study of the real needs of the community, among many other requests to improve public health services.

Further aggravating the situation are the Region’s private doctors, who this week have also planned a series of demonstrations outside their offices and places of work against the “extreme slowness” in the negotiations of a collective agreement that “affects more than 7,000 workers”.

Workers from the hospitals Ribera Salud (Molina de Segura), Viamed San José (Sewer), Quirón Salud and Mesa de Castillo (Murcia), Virgen de la Caridad (Cartagena and Caravaca de la Cruz), Laboratorios Munuera Eurofins (Murcia) and the sanitary cleaning company Eulen Esterilización are all taking part in the action. To make matters worse, the Comisiones Obreras union has warned that if there is no “immediate reaction” then strike action will be seriously considered.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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