The spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Assembly of Extremadura, Isabel Gil Rosiña, pointed out this Wednesday that the resignation of the coordinator of Emergencies at the University Hospital of Cáceres, known as indicated this Wednesday, "is the most evident proof" of the "progressive deterioration" of public healthcare in the community since the arrival to power of the 'popular' María Guardiola.
Gil Rosiña recalled that the Secretary General of the PSOE of Extremadura, Álvaro Sánchez Cotrina, already warned the day before about the situation in the Emergencies of Cáceres, and emphasized that what is known now confirms that it was not a "false alarm" from the Socialist Party, but "in the face of a reality that healthcare professionals have been conveying for months."
"Since the Guardiola government took office, there has been a progressive deterioration of public healthcare in Extremadura. And the SES does not have a problem of economic resources, because it practically has the same budget it had during the years of socialist government. What it has is a problem of management, planning, and capacity," he stated.
In this line, the socialist leader reproached that Guardiola "decided to dispense with a good part of the management team of the SES as if they were political positions of the Socialist Party and not public managers with experience and knowledge of Extremadura's healthcare."
"They have put people from private healthcare in charge of public healthcare and, in many cases, without experience in managing a public healthcare system like the Extremaduran one. And the consequences of that decision are what we are seeing now," he pointed out.
In his opinion, "the resignation of the coordinator of Emergencies in Cáceres is not an isolated event, but it is indeed a particularly serious one," the Socialist Group in the Assembly notes in a press release.
"When a professional who has the responsibility of coordinating one of the most sensitive services of a hospital decides to resign after months of warnings about the situation of the service, the Ministry of Health cannot limit itself to responding with a staffing figure or with the announcement of new hires," he indicates.
"Such a resignation should set off all the alarms of the department. Because we are not talking about someone who arrives today and disagrees with a specific decision. We are talking about a head of Emergencies who has been conveying the difficulties of the service for months and who finally decides to abandon her responsibility. This should force the counselor to ask herself what is happening and, above all, why her professionals are reaching this point," she added.
Criticism of the management and coordination of the SES
The spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group has denounced, in addition, "the lack of communication and coordination between the SES Management, its central services, and the management of the health areas."
"Each one does as they please. There is no clear direction from the Extremadura Health Service and those in charge of the areas have to face the problems practically alone. That is not managing a public health system, that is leaving it adrift," she stated.
Gil Rosiña has reiterated that "the Socialist Party has been saying for some time that health management in Extremadura is a chaos since Guardiola has been in power" and has pointed out that "the best example of this chaos is what the citizens are experiencing."
"We have a record number of complaints at the SES windows and before the Users' Defender, private health insurance has increased exponentially, and more and more Extremaduran people are feeling the deterioration of public health in their own skin," she warned.
To this situation, she added, "we must add the collapse of Emergencies and that a citizen can take fourteen days to be attended to by their doctor when they are sick." "These are situations that have never occurred in Extremadura and that demonstrate to what extent the response capacity of the system has deteriorated," she stated.
Gil Rosiña has also emphasized that "the PSOE knows the SES perfectly and knows that managing a public health system that has to serve a million inhabitants entails enormous difficulty."
"We know that problems are inherent to health management. What we do not accept is that there is an attempt to normalize what is happening now. Not even in times of special difficulty for the SES, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic, was there the chaos and deterioration that we are currently seeing," she pointed out.
Hiring, "patches," and system overload
In relation to the SES announcement about the incorporation of six additional doctors for the Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Cáceres, Gil Rosiña has stated that "the deterioration that exists at this moment in the Extremaduran public health does not need propaganda or patches."
"Hiring six doctors to try to solve the problem of the Emergencies in Cáceres is a patch in front of a much more widespread chaos that affects both Primary Care and Specialized Care. The problem is not just the Emergencies of the hospitals, although it worsens especially in summer. The problem is that we have been many months with a healthcare system that operates at the limit," he explained.
For the spokesperson of the Socialist Group, "the ministry has turned extraordinary activity into the usual way of functioning of the SES." "It is intended to solve with extraordinary activity what should be resolved with planning. And when summer arrives, when it is necessary to organize the vacations of healthcare personnel, not just the doctors, the system suffers even more," he stated.
Gil Rosiña also wanted to emphasize the entire staff of the SES. "Here there are not only doctors. There are nurses, technicians, orderlies, administrative staff, management and service personnel, and many other healthcare and non-healthcare professionals who are sustaining the system with enormous effort."
"Everyone is upset and exhausted. And a government must know that for an organization to function, its workers must feel recognized, heard, and supported. It is not enough to talk about doctors. All the professionals who lift the Extremaduran public health every day must be recognized," he added.
For this reason, Gil Rosiña has demanded from the Minister of Health "a deep reconsideration of how public health in Extremadura is being managed." "This is not fixed with a press release, with six hires, or with a staff number. It is necessary to recover planning, coordination, and the management capacity of the SES and to listen again to those who know and sustain our public health," he stated.
"When we ask for explanations in the parliamentary offices, the counselor gets offended. But those who are offended are the Extremadurans, who pay their taxes and have the right to a public healthcare system that works. And today we have a signal that the ministry cannot ignore, which is that a person in charge of Emergencies who, after months warning about the situation, has decided to resign. If in response to this the Government's answer is to keep counting professionals and announcing patches, it means they have not understood the seriousness of the problem," he concluded.