"If it's 4:00 in the morning and I've already attended to 80 patients since 5:00 p.m. when I started working, imagine what my faculties are like." With a graphic example, Miguel Ángel Sánchez Rebosa wanted to express the deficiencies that the Valterra emergency room staff claims to suffer and that has led them to call an indefinite strike. They are asking for an increase from a single team (doctor, nurse, orderly and administrative staff) during emergency hours, to two teams and also request that their salaries be equated with those of hospital emergency room staff, "we enter at 5:00 p.m. and leave at 9:00 a.m. the next day and we don't get paid for night work."
The workers' spokespersons acknowledge that since the announcement of the strike last Tuesday, September 18, there have been contacts with the Primary Care Management "but no one seriously, nor with written proposals." They do not believe the words of the Director of Health of Lanzarote, Juan Manuel Sosa about the "very good predisposition to resolve the demands", because the strike committee assures that "they have heard those things many times already."
According to the data provided by the strike committee, the Valterra Emergency Service covers the needs of a population of around 70,000 people, taking into account every weekend the patients who arrive from the basic area of Teguise, and it does so "with a reduced staff". The staff is made up of 30 workers (8 doctors, 11 nurses, 4 orderlies and 5 administrative staff), of whom 22 have signed the strike notice. Until 11:00 p.m., there are two doctors attending emergencies at the health center, but from that moment on, there is only one doctor until 9:00 a.m. the next day. Therefore, as Miguel Ángel Sánchez explained, there is an average of "250 patients to attend to per day by two doctors, without physical space to attend with a minimum of quality in care."
They denounce that they find themselves with "saturated emergencies" with days, especially Sundays, when there are up to 40 patients "waiting 4 or 5 hours without having been assessed, it is a risk for the population", said Blanca Beortegui Sierra. From last March to September 5, 34,566 medical records had been opened in emergencies and they fear the increase in assistance when incidents due to respiratory pathologies begin with the change of season. "There is a health deficit and there is real fear for the assistance to users" concludes Miguel Ángel Sánchez.
The response from the general director of Health is that for some time the Ministry of Health has been working on expanding the emergency infrastructure in Valterra, to later expand the staff, but he stated this Friday that the workers "had advanced, if they do not make this pre-notice, probably in a month and a half or two months, we would have solved it".
Division among unions
The CC.OO. union has decided not to join the strike notice because, according to Ramón Pérez, "we understood that we had to look for other options before going on strike." The decision has caused "surprise" among the members of U.G.T. and Intersindical Canarias, who assure "not to understand that in addition to not joining, they criticize the strike" and call CC.OO. "inoperative". According to the members of the strike committee, the staff's demands should have already been dealt with in working groups since they have been with "stagnant labor relations" governed by laws dating back to 1967.
[DEMANDS OF THE VALTERRA EMERGENCY SERVICE STAFF->13935]
