Specialist doctors from Madrid public hospitals have decided this afternoon to suspend their indefinite strike. They do so after an assembly at the Official College of Physicians, in which they have assessed the improvements that have been promised from the Ministry of Health, to end the tremendous temporality that exists in this group.
The strike, called by Amyts and other unions, reached its tenth day this Thursday. Its effect has not been much noticed in hospital centers, because the minimum services reached one hundred percent for many of the activities, considered essential, such as Emergencies, Surgery, Laboratory, Diagnostic Imaging and many others. On some specific occasions, these days some surgeries have been suspended.
However, there have been several protests at the doors of hospitals, in which a large majority of doctors expressed their discomfort at the high rates of temporary employment in the profession, which exceeds 52 percent among specialists. of hospitals, and up to 85 percent in the Emergencies of these same centers.
The discomfort of this professional group due to this situation of years chaining temporary contracts or guards even led the Official College of Physicians of Madrid to propose an ultimatum to the regional government at the beginning of April, willing to initiate legal action if a solution was not found. The Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, later offered them some improvements that convinced this professional association.
The Ministry of Health has a selection process underway to cover different public employment offers. But these doctors, many of whom have been in their positions for fifteen or twenty years, but without a permanent contract, refused to now have to risk their place in an eliminatory exam. They argued that many were already highly specialized in a specific unit or procedure, which left them in inferior conditions compared to recent graduates when responding to a generic exam.
Those responsible for the Ministry of Health, for their part, pointed out that it was impossible to call off the places already called because it would not be legal, as their legal services had indicated. Finally, they have found another formula that will improve the situation and also make the doctors happy, who, however, will remain vigilant to verify that what is promised is fulfilled.
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