The Medical Union of Euskadi calls for support for “the factory” for the visiting pass on Saturdays and public holidays

The Medical Union of Euskadi (SME) has called on doctors to “show strength” and support the “plan” for hospital visits on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, promoted with the aim of achieving improvements in salaries of professionals in those working days, which are considered overtime. Doctors from Osakidetza have already sent a letter to the General Directorate of the Basque Health Service expressing their refusal to implement this hospital visit pass, because they do not agree with the amounts received and as such. as long as the annual increase under the CPI is not applied to them.

In concrete terms, doctors request that hospital visits be made by Saturdaythey get paid 420 euros per passcompared to the current 315, regardless of the hours required, and as long as these do not exceed seven hours.

The same goes for those of Sunday and holidays, set the amount to be received for each hospital visit at 508 euros and not the current 420, regardless of the hours required and as long as these do not exceed seven hours.

They also demand the application of the proportional increase per hour for exceeding 7 hours (60 euros/hour on Saturdays and 72 euros/hour on Sundays and public holidays) and that from the sixth Saturday the amounts be increased by 10%. In the letter, the doctors inform Osakidetza management that they have a period of 15 days from the registration of the document to accept the conditions set out in their letter, from which date they will stop carrying out the Visit Pass “. if the response is not met by fulfilling the request within the indicated period.” In any case, in the letter they remind Osakidetza that the so-called Visit Pass falls under the Self-Consultation (Decree 206/1992 of 21 July) and that is voluntary in nature, so “they say that there is no voluntariness in making the pass unless the amount they receive reflects their demands.

Lack of midwives in Cruces

On the other hand, the ESK union has denounced that the Barakaldés Hospital in Cruces does not carry out an “active search” for midwives, despite the “prevailing shortage” of these professionals.

In a statement, the trade union centre denounced the existence of “vacancies that have not yet reached the recruitment service”, a situation that “the Minister of Health, Alberto Martínez, denies, who recently stated that 100% of the structural staff of midwives was covered and, in terms of covering absences, recruitment was given priority over other organisational measures.

“It is curious that this lack of planning and searching for professionals is more evident in the hospital where the new care provider comes from,” he added.

For ESK it is “unacceptable” that there are midwives who “double shifts to guarantee service provision and that overtime is being worked while there is no active search for midwives.”