For a long time, the reorganization of Primary Care has been a pending issue in Castilla y León and both professionals and the different councilors who have passed through the health area have recognized that it is urgent to address this issue. And that will be precisely one of the priority lines of the new head of Health, Alejandro Vázquez, as he himself explained yesterday during his appearance in the Cortes of Castilla y León to explain the roadmap that his team will follow in the coming years.
It is his intention, he said, that this “necessary” restructuring allows “strengthening and maintaining” the rural assistance model “guaranteeing presence” throughout the territory and addressing it on the “basis of the analysis of the current situation and future forecasts for each basic health area and dialogue» with professionals, local entities, citizens and unions.
And it is that this has been a tricky issue in the previous legislature, when the proposal of the previous counselor, Verónica Casado, unleashed numerous criticisms from municipalities and marked a gap in the previous government of Cs and PP. Aware that it will be a “complicated” journey, among other things due to the lack of doctors -the “great evil of the Health of Castilla y León and Spain”, he came to qualify-, he showed his willingness to talk about analyzing the characteristics of each area and to take measures that allow assistance in the villages.
In addition, it plans to provide more economic support to this health area. Thus, Vázquez announced that the weight of Primary Care in Sacyl’s budget will be increased “progressively” until it reaches 20 percent of health spending, to keep the region at the head of this section at the national level.
It will also face another of the great challenges in this legislature: the reorganization of human resources. It will be done through a new plan to “size” and “adapt” templates with measures such as encouraging the performance of positions that are difficult to fill, many of them precisely in rural areas, “exceeding what is contained in the 2019 decree.” To deal with the worrying deficit of certain professionals, Vázquez announced a new regulation by which it will be possible to “prolong the stay in active service until the age of 70 years”. Within the personnel section, he showed the intention of giving “stability” to the toilets through a “biennial calendar of public job offers.”
If something will guide this new stage as a “working formula,” he said, it will be “participation, dialogue, consensus and agreement.” Along these lines, he extended his hand to the political groups – he will summon them in the “next few days” – to, “beyond the differences”, reach a “grand pact” for the “present and future” of regional health, a system that requires a new regional financing model that takes into account parameters such as dispersion, aging and includes the “real cost of public services” in a community that “suffers” from underfinancing.
On the other hand, he referred to the importance that Public Health has acquired with the arrival of Covid. “The pandemic has raised awareness of the essential nature of the area,” he recalled, and the Ministry does not want to make “the same mistakes” again. Thus, it will promote and strengthen that department that will have a new law, a “reorganization of the alert system” and “the idea of a vaccination calendar will be overcome to develop an Immunization Program that will keep Castilla y León as a pioneer in prevention policy” .
A priority will also be to reduce the “unaffordable” waiting lists, both for surgery and for diagnostic tests and outpatient consultations that will be faced with “the shock plan” that the President of the Board, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, announced days ago. This legislature will also serve to promote digital transformation, he explained, in which telemedicine and “non-face-to-face consultations” will continue to be used. At this point, the counselor also set himself the challenge of launching a “single electronic medical record” that also covers the socio-health field.
Among other measures, the counselor guaranteed the free choice of health center through a new decree that improves “equity”, comprehensive care for mental health, palliative care or chronic patients will be developed and “humanization” will continue to be promoted. » in attendance. In addition, he announced that the role of nursing will be strengthened and research and innovation will be promoted, for which “new biomedical research institutes” will be created.
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