Chunta Aragonesista (CHA) has presented in the Cortes a battery of parliamentary questions addressed to the Councillor of Health in order to clarify the reasons, the cost and the conditions under which the outsourcing of the Clinical Records Archive of the Miguel Servet University Hospital of Zaragoza is intended to be carried out.
According to CHA, the decision involves entrusting a private company with the management and safekeeping of all clinical documentation, both active and passive, and freeing up the spaces that this service currently occupies within the hospital itself.
The deputy spokesperson of CHA in the Cortes and spokesperson in the Health Committee, Isabel Lasobras, wants to know what care-related, organizational and economic criteria support this change, as well as the administrative procedure followed, the amount of the contract, the planned deadlines and the conditions set out in the specifications.
CHA calls for detailed information in order to assess the effect of this reorganization and compare its cost with the option of maintaining direct management through the own means of the Aragonese Health Service. The Chunta initiative also puts the focus on the situation of the affected staff, both permanent statutory and interim, temporary and casual.
Lasobras asks the Department of Health what the future of the entire workforce will be, in what terms its reassignment will be carried out and what guarantees will be offered to prevent job losses or the worsening of their working conditions. CHA sees it as essential to dispel all doubts about the labor impact of a measure that directly affects those who provide this service.
At the same time, CHA requests explanations about the security and traceability requirements that will be imposed on the successful bidder to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and proper safekeeping of medical records during their transfer and storage outside public healthcare facilities. Lasobras likewise questions the reasons for the urgent processing and the lack of prior and detailed information to the union and professional representatives involved.
Lastly, Chunta considers that the Government of Aragón should back down from this outsourcing and calls for the utmost transparency over a decision that affects public resources, the center's staff and the protection of documentation key to healthcare.