Of a total of 79 resident doctors specializing in Paediatrics, who finished their training period this month, only one has chosen one of the places offered in Madrid’s health centers. And of the 219 who complete their specialty in Family Medicine, only 20 have chosen to join Primary Care. The regional government differs in the figures: it states that there are 16 pediatricians who are going to join health centers. In any case, the evident detachment – which has been reproducing in recent years – has caused alarm bells to go off.
Many circumstances conspire to give rise to this flight from Primary Care: on the one hand, the shifts that are offered are in many cases in the afternoon – from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the case of yesterday, say the unions – which prevents the conciliation to the new doctors.
On the other hand, the saturation of many of these centers leads to having to attend “50 or 60 children per day, with three or four minutes on average for each one,” Amyts denounces.
As reported by this union, the Ministry of Health yesterday offered 30 places – “obviously, not fixed”, they clarify – for pediatricians to the 79 new doctors who finish their residency this month. And that “only one has attended the call.” The spokesman for the regional government, Enrique Ossorio, stated that “these figures are not correct”, and that in reality “16 have requested to be included in the stock market” after “the Management informed them of the new remuneration included in the improvement plan ».
He was referring to the Primary Care Improvement Plan launched by the regional government and plans to invest 200 million euros in organizational reforms, staff increases and salary incentives for doctors at this level of care.
In any case, the Ministry of Health clarified that “the current vacancies have been offered, mainly replacement contracts. Said unfilled places continue to be offered continuously by the Madrid Health Service employment exchange. Residents who have not chosen these places have a second call in mid-June with the offer of new internships and new vacancies that will arise, “they assured.
Also yesterday the call was made by the Ministry of Health so that the MIRs who finish their residency in Family Medicine in Madrid choose a place: 98 were offered, to which the 219 doctors who finished their training could apply. According to Amyts, 20 people showed up.
Some “dramatic” figures, in the words of the general secretary of this group, Ángela Hernández, who explained: “We have been pointing out for years that the system like this is impossible to sustain.” This occurs because “the places are not attractive enough, not only for residents to choose them, but for current family doctors and paediatricians to continue exercising them.”
The seriousness of the events is twofold: 79 new pediatricians are trained for years in Madrid’s public network hospitals and “when they finish their residency, the vast majority leave the community or the country,” they point out from Amyts.
But in addition, it shows an absolute detachment from Madrid’s Primary Care. And it is not the first time that this has happened: last year, they point out from this same union, “something similar happened: only 17 of the 224 new Family doctors chose one of the places offered by Madrid.” And with paediatricians it was similar: «Madrid Health trained 76 new paediatricians, and barely five showed up to choose one of the 45 places offered».
Among the reasons denounced by the representatives of the health workers are the “very high overload, the institutional abandonment of Primary Care, bad contracts and, above all, the problem of conciliation.” For this reason, they concluded, many “prefer to choose substitutions with the center that has formed them”, despite “the instability that this entails”.
