The president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, assured this Wednesday that he is ready to open a dialogue process with medical unions in order to end the strike, although he warned that the quality of healthcare constitutes a "red line".
During the parliamentary plenary session's question period, and in response to questions put by Vox and PSOE, he made ironic remarks about the "trust" the opposition gives him to confront conflicts, noting that an additional 150 million has already been put on the table for salary improvements and that certain organizational-type demands would go "to the detriment" of citizens.
Clavijo stated that he feels "proud" of public employees and the medical group, but he emphasized that only commitments that the executive can "undertake" can be offered, so that "under no circumstances" will he accept an agreement that "harms" the population.
In this regard, he said that both sides will have to "concede", though he insisted that the physicians must "understand" that the regional budget presents "limitations", in part due to the absence of PGE.
"We will negotiate and reach an agreement, balancing care for the people of the Canary Islands and workers' demands," the Canary Islands president said.
He once again resorted to irony by referring to the "comrade Galván" in the defense of the union movement made by the Vox spokesperson, and he asked the PSOE for a "little bit of coherence" for criticizing the strike when they have been more than a year and a half without completing the reform of the Framework Statute.
He rejected that there is "indolence or arrogance" in his executive, and he questioned whether it is a "drama" to finance medicines for people in the Canary Islands, to recognize a 5% salary increase, or to stabilize more than 9,000 professionals. At the same time, he called on the central Government to pay the 72 million annual amount that entails healthcare for migrant people, while "it seems that there is money to roll out televisions in that way" during the election campaign -- in reference to La Séptima --.
For his part, Galván (Vox) emphasized that it is "urgent" that Clavijo "feels" able to negotiate with doctors and questioned whether the "Canary Islands way" of negotiating consists of offering "nothing" when workers do not accept the proposal from the Ministry of Health.
Healthcare "is overwhelmed" and they demand an agreement
The Vox deputy has underlined that it is a "priority issue" on the political agenda because healthcare "is overloaded", and has demanded that the president meet with "all" healthcare professionals and "not get up" from the table until a consensus is reached. "It is managed by talking with the staff, not from offices", he has ruled.
The spokesperson for the Socialist Group, Sebastián Franquis, has criticized the "indifference, sloth and lack of respect" toward doctors and toward the Canary Islands health system, and has asked the president "why he is on the sidelines" of the negotiating process when "hundreds of consultations, tests and operations are delayed".
Franquis reproached Clavijo "why" he intervened with tourism trade associations to unblock the hospitality agreement while, in his view, the medical strike constitutes the "main problem" of public services. He has also called for "respect" for the practicing physicians and has rejected the "arrogance" and the "put-downs" with which, as he said, the director of the SCS, Adasat Goya, expresses himself.
The Socialist leader has questioned that the Executive describes the demands of the medical collective as "unaffordable" when "every year they go up" the healthcare concerts and pharmaceutical spending, or when it is planned to pay nearly 500 million in compensation to tourism business owners.