The Minister of Health, Julio García Comesaña, has defended that the Galician Health Service only resorts to doctors with a degree but without a specialty in "exceptional cases" and with the aim of avoiding "closing services".
He stated this on Wednesday during the plenary session of the Parliament of Galicia, in response to BNG deputy Montse Prado, who criticized the Xunta's health management, especially for the summer season, and reproached that one of the "star" measures is the incorporation of doctors without a MIR training specialty.
"The PP, once again, instead of taking measures to guarantee that there are professionals, blames everything on Madrid for not sending doctors," denounced the nationalist parliamentarian, criticizing that Sergas "hires more and more professionals without specialized training" when "for 31 years it has been mandatory to work in the public health system."
In his speech, the minister stressed that Galician healthcare, like the rest of the National Health System, suffers from a "structural deficit of medical professionals" and insisted that "the main tools" to reverse this situation depend on the Ministry of Health, which is "who accredits the teaching units, who authorizes the specialized health training tests and who regulates the specialties" and "must authorize the homologations of specialist titles."
In this context, he stressed that "when there are no professionals available to cover certain absences or healthcare needs," the Administration's obligation is "to organize existing resources to ensure that citizens continue to receive healthcare."
"That is the difference between making policy from reality or from the banner," Comesaña replied, assuring that the regional Executive "will not leave citizens without care."
"We are not going to close services or abandon municipalities because the Ministry did not do its homework on time and did not adopt measures to offer solutions to the deficit of primary care professionals as it should have."
The counselor has highlighted the Xunta's effort to attract new doctors by approving the largest offer of specialized health training in the community's history and has pointed out that, with the 725 approved places, 100% of those accredited in key specialties such as family and community medicine, pediatrics, and the new specialty of urgent and emergency care are being offered.
Furthermore, he reiterated that the Xunta demands from the central government an increase in MIR places, greater speed in the homologation of medical degrees, the possibility of voluntarily extending activity up to 72 years of age, and planning adjusted to the real needs of professionals in the system.
PAC of Moaña (Pontevedra)
In the same plenary session, BNG deputy Paulo Ríos conveyed to Comesaña the complaints of the residents of Moaña, who demand the reopening of the Continuous Care Point (PAC) closed six years ago. "We see that with the health center open there is nothing but lies and lies, deceptions when they try to pass off an ambulance as a PAC," he stated.
The head of Health responded that the Xunta guarantees healthcare in the Moaña City Council as it "always did" and cited as an example the commissioning of the new health center, which he described as the largest health investment made in this municipality, with an outlay of 9.6 million euros, to which 400,000 euros allocated to the reform of the Domaio clinic are added.
Regarding urgent care, he pointed out that residents in Moaña have "urgent care seven days a week, 24 hours a day" and that "there is a specific device to guarantee urgent healthcare with a doctor and a nurse in the afternoons," in addition to the extension from 12 to 24 hours of the advanced life support ambulance service with a nurse based in the municipality.
In response to these explanations, the BNG deputy insisted that the residents of the area are "fed up" with the Xunta's "lies." "Mr. Counselor, provide emergency services now or resign, that's all you have to do," he demanded.
"I am not going to resign, I'll tell you that now," Comesaña replied, accusing the Bloque of "generating a climate of conflict" that "will cause healthcare professionals not to want to provide their services" in this center.