The Senate has given green light this Wednesday to a motion of the Popular Party that demands from the Government that it recognize the level of training and the specific responsibility of doctors within the healthcare system and that it increase by 15 percent the current staff, along with other actions aimed at improving their working conditions.
The initiative, presented in the Plenary of the Upper House by the 'popular' senator María del Mar San Martín, includes 11 proposals with which the PP claims to want to recognize the uniqueness of the medical collective, reinforce its prominence and plan human resources to face health challenges and preserve care quality. The text has gone forward with 149 votes in favor, 104 against and six abstentions.
Among the measures, it is proposed to promote a new model of regional financing that includes a dedicated allocation for healthcare; design a resource planning that adjusts staffing to the needs social, demographic, and epidemiological in constant change; establish a specific state dialogue table for doctors; and review upwards the remuneration for on-call duties, equating overtime hours to ordinary hours.
The motion also incorporates actions aimed at resident internal doctors (MIR). In this area, it proposes a dynamic MIR offer adjusted to real needs, with a progressive increase in places and an evaluation system that avoids this year's "chaos"; as well as making the accreditation requirements for teaching units more flexible, prioritizing the most strained specialties, such as Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics.
The controversy of the Framework Statute
The debate takes place in the midst of the process of reform of the Framework Statute, promoted by the Ministry of Health together with the main unions, a project that has aroused the rejection of various medical organizations and has resulted in state-wide strike calls.
Facing this scenario, Senator San Martín has reproached that the Minister of Health, Mónica García, "only offers imposition, instability and exclusion of the medical collective from the negotiating process". "The minister, with the full support of Pedro Sánchez, has opted to divide and to impose. She neither addresses structural deficiencies, nor are her proposals aimed at improving healthcare quality. Far from it, the measures she has proposed have been considered by the sector as inefficient and deeply ideological", she stated.
Consequently, the Popular Party has demanded the immediate resignation of the head of Health, considering that "she cannot be one more day at the head of the ministry." "Mrs. García says that this strike doesn't fly. The one who doesn't fly one more day is her as Minister of Health," Senator Rosa María Romero has emphasized.
Rejected Amendments and Positions of the Groups
The PP's text has been approved without incorporating the amendments registered by Izquierda Confederal and Vox. The first group proposed a total substitution amendment for the Senate to urge the Executive to "continue promoting" the process of dialogue, listening, and negotiation with trade union organizations and healthcare professionals.
Senator Carla Delgado, defender of the amendment, has accused the PP of spreading "catastrophic" messages. "With respect to the motion that the PP brings today, it could be titled 'in desperation'. More than improving public healthcare, ladies and gentlemen, what you want is to sow doubts about a system that works thanks to the effort of thousands and thousands of professionals," she criticized, announcing her group's opposing vote.
Vox, for its part, had registered an amendment that included the immediate withdrawal of the government's proposal for the reform of the Framework Statute and the drafting of specific regulations for doctors. Senator Paloma Gómez has stressed that the 'popular' motion "does not address the underlying problem" and has reproached the PP for its abstention in a previous initiative for the creation of its own medical statute.
In the turn of spokespersons, the PSOE, through Marta Arocha, has questioned that the PP presents itself as a defender of public health professionals while its regional executives "prioritize private healthcare" and vote against "every time advances are proposed to improve workers' rights."
In the same critical vein, Idurre Bideguren, from Euskal Herria Bildu, has admitted that there is "a lot of anger" in the public health system, especially among doctors, and has agreed on the need to improve their conditions. However, her group has rejected the motion, considering it an "exercise in opportunism and hypocrisy" by the PP, recalling that Mariano Rajoy's Government applied "historic cuts".
The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has opted for abstention. Its spokesperson, Nerea Ahedo, has explained that they share some aspects of the motion, but disagree with others related to planning, organization, and management, competencies that correspond to the autonomous communities. Even so, she has demanded "responsibility" from the Ministry of Health to reach a consensus on a Framework Statute that integrates all healthcare professionals.
Meanwhile, the senator for Junts per Catalunya, Francesc Xavier Ten, has criticized the healthcare policy of Salvador Illa's socialist government in Catalonia and has shown his support for the 'popular' initiative. "Ladies and gentlemen, we believe that socialist governments are not treating doctors well in Catalonia. I hope that this motion serves as yet another wake-up call and that they come to their senses," he stated.