The Andalusian Health Service (SAS) has established the minimum health services for the general strike called for Wednesday 11 November 2026, which will last for 24 hours, from 00:00 to 23:59 hours. The resolution, published this Monday in the Official Gazette of the Government of Andalusia (BOJA), includes a 75% coverage of the workforce in the Salud Responde teleoperation services, while hospitals and Primary Care centres will generally operate with the staff provided for a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday.
The Department of the Presidency, Health and Emergencies of the Government of Andalusia has designed a device to guarantee urgent medical care and treatments that cannot be interrupted, while at the same time allowing professionals to exercise their right to strike. Ordinary scheduled activity is excluded from the minimum services, so certain consultations, diagnostic tests, and non-urgent surgical procedures could be modified or postponed during the day.
Salud Responde will operate with 75% of its workforce during the strike
One of the main services affected will be Salud Responde, the public Andalusian health telephone care system that allows managing medical appointments, receiving health information, and accessing other care services without needing to travel to a health centre.
The Government has established that 75% of the teleoperation workers remain operational in each shift, a proportion which, according to the resolution, has already been applied in previous strike calls.
The SAS justifies this measure by the need to guarantee access to healthcare, especially among citizens who have greater difficulties using digital means or travelling to their medical centres.
Specifically, the document warns that the inability to request an appointment in advance by phone can directly affect patients’ health, especially when the people involved are older persons, citizens with reduced mobility, or residents in isolated municipalities.
The Autonomous Administration considers that excessively reducing this service could leave vulnerable groups without care and cause delays in access to medical appointments. For this reason, it maintains high coverage to prevent phone lines from becoming saturated and to ensure that calls can continue to be handled.
Hospitals and emergencies: 100% coverage in ICUs, maternity wards and emergency operating rooms
In the hospital setting, the Junta de Andalucía guarantees the operation of essential services with the usual staffing of a Sunday or public holiday. The resolution establishes full coverage of the essential activity to handle emergencies and situations in which a delay could compromise patients’ health.
Specifically, it guarantees the 100% coverage necessary in intensive care units (ICUs), resuscitation, maternity wards, emergency operating rooms, urgent hemodynamics, and urgent diagnostic and interventional radiology. It will also maintain care procedures that cannot be interrupted due to the risk they would pose to patients.
These include treatments such as dialysis, chemotherapy and radiotherapy that cannot be postponed, certain oncology interventions, and oxygen therapy, as well as care for hospitalized people who require immediate assistance.
In hospital emergency services, the minimum staffing level will be the usual staffing for a weekend or public holiday. The resolution provides for the possibility of reinforcing certain facilities depending on care needs and the organization of on-call shifts.
What will happen to medical appointments and scheduled operations on 11N
The general strike could also affect outpatient clinics, scheduled operations, and diagnostic tests that do not have an urgent nature.
The order published in the BOJA expressly excludes from minimum services ordinary scheduled activity, non-urgent outpatient clinics, scheduled surgical procedures that can be postponed, and deferred diagnostic procedures.
This means that normal operation of these services is not guaranteed during Wednesday, 11 November, although it also does not imply that all medical appointments or operations planned for that day will be automatically canceled.
Activity will depend on monitoring the strike, the professionals available, and the organization of each healthcare center. Therefore, patients who have an appointment or a scheduled procedure must keep an eye on communications from their hospital or health center to check whether it remains.
Meanwhile, tests and treatments whose delay could cause serious harm to health must continue to be provided with the necessary resources.
How healthcare centers in Andalusia will work during the strike
In Primary Care, the operation of the centers will depend on the availability of urgent services and on their opening hours.
The resolution distinguishes between health centers that have a Primary Care Emergency Service (SUAP) and those that do not have this resource. When both services are available during the same hours, emergencies will be covered by the specific device, without the need to assign additional minimum staff to the center’s ordinary activity.
In health centers and local offices that do not have SUAP, or whose hours do not coincide with those of the emergency service, at least one doctor will be designated to attend exclusively to emergencies during the usual opening hours.
For their part, auxiliary offices will not have assigned minimum services. Their users must go to the Primary Care center or to the reference emergency device, following the same procedure as during Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.
In this way, urgent care will be guaranteed, although not necessarily at each patient’s usual office.
The 061 will guarantee emergencies and may reinforce its staff
The order also sets specific conditions for the healthcare emergency services of the 061, whose activity is considered essential because it addresses situations in which a rapid response may be decisive.
In the 061 coordinating centers, teleoperation will have 90% of staff per shift, a percentage that may be increased up to 95% when extraordinary levels of demand are recorded or the Territorial Emergency Plan is activated.
In addition, full coverage of the mobile emergency teams is guaranteed, along with the coordination of emergencies, the air teams, and the transfer of critical patients. Support services, such as transport, cleaning, maintenance, or IT systems, must maintain the essential resources to ensure the operation of these devices.
The resolution also includes continuity of care for hospitalized patients and for health services that cannot be interrupted, with the aim of preventing the strike day from jeopardizing the care provided to people who need immediate care.
The strike of November 11 will affect public and private healthcare
The call for a general strike of Wednesday, November 11 affects both workers in public healthcare and those in the private healthcare sector in Andalusia. The minimum services approved seek to guarantee essential assistance without preventing the exercise of the right to strike recognized in the Constitution.
The order establishes that the staff designated to provide these services must maintain the indispensable activity during the day. At the same time, it clarifies that the minimum services do not equate to the usual functioning of a working day, but rather to the strictly necessary resources to protect the health and safety of the population.
Accordingly, emergencies, emergency situations, and unavoidable treatments must continue to function, while the rest of healthcare activity may experience changes depending on the monitoring of stoppages.
Patients who have consultations or scheduled procedures for Wednesday should check whether their appointments continue to be scheduled. For those who need urgent care, the Andalusian healthcare network will keep operational the devices established in the resolution published by the Junta de Andalucía.