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Canary Islands doctors call indefinite strike from 16 October
The Medical Union (CESM) and the Canary Islands Medical Employees Union (SEMCA) announced this Wednesday the calling of an indefinite strike in the Canary Islands Health Service from 16 October, over the disagreements the collective maintains with the Department of Health. The announcement of this strike comes on the same day that the national labour protest by doctors has been postponed pending the holding of the general election, and just one week after UGT signed a preliminary agreement with the Department of Health, by which it considered the conflict closed on its part.
SEMCA representative Cristina Escort said during a press conference that UGT “has signed in a dirty manner and does not represent doctors”. The majority unions among the medical collective in the Canary Islands maintain that the Department has not responded to the 18 objectives set out as part of a strategic plan to improve their working conditions and preserve the quality of the public system.
8,000 doctors called to strike across the islands
Some 8,000 doctors in the Canary Islands, including resident doctors, are called to the indefinite stoppage, 80% of whom back the strike, according to the president of CESM Canarias, Eric Álvarez. The unions consider that the proposals presented by the Department of Health contain limited and partial advances, which remain insufficient to solve “a structural problem”.
In their view, they do not offer a comprehensive solution regarding the collective’s own representation, pay, continued care, professional career, job stability, care schedules and the specific needs of Primary and Hospital Care. “We have reached an unwanted situation after much negotiation,” lamented Álvarez, who insisted that the union organisations remain willing to negotiate before the start of the strike, but that calling it off would require a sufficient response to the whole conflict, concrete and verifiable commitments and a realistic timetable for implementation.
Unions accuse health service of imposing new work rules
The doctors criticise that, during the negotiation, the Canary Islands Health Service has sought to impose a new organisation of work without sufficient study time and without having negotiated it with the unions, as well as failing to take into account that the centres are very different from one another.
The doctors’ demands concern representation (own and effective interlocution for doctors and physicians), working hours and rest (shifts, on-call duties, rest periods and care workloads) and pay (recognition in line with qualification, responsibility and professional competitiveness in the context of the European Economic Area).
The 18 negotiating objectives
The doctors have set out 18 negotiating objectives, among them a Medical and Physician Statute of their own, own representation and negotiation, the promotion and recognition of teaching, increasing the fixed-factor productivity supplement, the review and increase of the variable productivity supplement and the reclassification of the destination supplement.
They also call for the professional career to be updated, a new model of exemption from on-call duties, the reorganisation of continued care and rest periods, specific measures for doctors over 60 and a plan to recruit and retain recently qualified specialists.
Other demands include stability and permanent employment, funding for civil liability insurance, the strengthening of continuing training, the adjustment of care schedules, an open and permanent transfer competition, the protection of staff in Specialised Health Training (MIR, BIR, QIR and others) and global measures for Primary Care.
In addition to the indefinite strike called from 16 October, the doctors foresee other pressure measures if the Department of Health does not address their demands, such as halting the teaching, scientific and training activity of physicians.
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