The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has emphasized that, with the approval of the new Royal Decree that updates the special employment relationship of Residency for training specialists in Health Sciences, there will be “no more” “a resident working 24 hours and putting their health and that of patients at risk.”
With reference to the rule ratified this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, which replaces “an obsolete Royal Decree, from 2006, the 1146,” she has celebrated that “24-hour on-call shifts for resident doctors are over.” García has stressed that “on-call shifts become 17 hours, not one more” and has reiterated that “within the limit of a maximum of 17 hours of daily work, the ordinary workday and the on-call hours are included.”
The minister has specified that “these on-call shifts will be, at most, four per month,” with the option of adding a fifth for justified teaching reasons and always on a voluntary basis. Likewise, she has indicated that “we reduce the maximum limit of 45 hours per week with a maximum ordinary workday of 35 hours per week,” highlighting that it is below “the limit of the European Directive of a maximum of 48 hours of ordinary work.”
Salary improvements and labor protection
García has also defended “better remuneration,” which includes “a training allowance that increases each year from 18 percent to 58 percent.” She has explained that “where before an R1 received 0 percent, now they receive 18 percent and so on up to the R5, which goes from receiving 38 percent to 58 percent,” also reminding that “to this allowance, a residency allowance must be added that the autonomous communities will establish.”
The head of Health has added that the new framework incorporates “more prevention of occupational risks and protection for situations of temporary disability (IT), pregnancy, birth, and adoption.” She has also stated that “the healthcare centers of each autonomous community will have to organize the schedules of residents in line with teaching objectives and must communicate them to residents at least two months in advance.”
Finally, it has indicated that "some of these improvements, such as the end of the mandatory 24-hour shifts, were already included in the Framework Statute", but it has emphasized that, with the new Royal Decree, "a further step is taken to improve the working conditions" of professionals in training. In its view, it is "a step that is essential to improve the standard of care of our Public Health Service and to look after what is most sacred: health".