The meeting of the Xunta with those responsible for the Internal Medicine service of public hospitals has not reassured the professionals. Various doctors in this specialty have prepared a letter addressed to the Ministry of Health and five other organizations in which they warn of a “chaotic situation”. The proposal of the Xunta goes through that, given the shortage of doctors, they can move from the head hospital to the regional ones. The internists urge a meeting with the Autonomous Health Administration and warn of possible mobilizations in hospitals “that could culminate in a strike in the entire Galician Internal Medicine group.”
As explained by Ep, in the letter they warn that, in a generalized way, the Internal Medicine services dependent on Sergas «continually support unaffordable care activity, on many occasions close to 170% of that planned for the current workforce, generating a chaotic situation which is of great concern due to the risk of compromising the quality of care or even the safety of patients”.
Regarding Thursday’s meeting, “qualified by the Ministry as successful”, they assure that this qualification “does not reflect the feelings of a large majority of the group of Galician internists”. “It has been an attempt to silence voices through the service headquarters, which are in charge of organizing and distributing the daily care load, but not the spokespersons of this collective demand for consideration, respect and safety for patients and doctors”, exposes this collective. They underline that “just the opposite; it opens the gap of understanding even more, if possible, between the doctors and those who organize the work, wanting to sell that the ratio of internists in Galicia is more than good when instead of treating eight patients a day, as our Society recommends, we see 18!». The group asserts that if the recommended ratio were followed there should be 392 internists when there are only 253. There would be a lack of 150 doctors.
The president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, valued the meeting yesterday. “The Xunta raised the need for internal medicine coverage throughout the territory, also in regional hospitals,” he pointed out. Rueda hoped that the internal medicine professionals “who must be thanked for their work and who have a significant workload, understand that it is necessary to reach these agreements.”
