The case of the citizen who died of a heart attack last August without adequate medical care has once again focused on the shortage of professionals in Osakidetza.

Urko Blanco: The situation is serious, but the situation has long been known. Last year all the municipalities of Aiaraldea received a message warning that during the summer and summer months there will be no doctors in the continuing care areas of the region and in the mobile ICU, so the municipalities would not have an adequate health service. Only the municipalities of Laudio and Ayala replied, the lack of interest of the other municipalities seems to me to be very serious.

When we talk about good health care, what are we talking about? What should emergency service offer by chance?

U.B. : It is very simple, in all categories 100% of professionals should be working in all shifts: Physician, nursing service and cellator in the Continuing Care Points, while in the mobile ICU are the physician, nursing service and technician. That is the care that citizens have to receive and all categories have to work to ensure that emergency services function properly. In addition, the resources are not very large.

This summer, however, has not always been the case.

U.B. : Indeed, emergency services have often been without medical personnel. The nursing service has replaced the lack of a doctor on several occasions, but this is not the appropriate procedure, a nurse cannot do the work of a doctor.

After the summer season, I would like to think that the situation is going to go a little bit further. At Christmas, however, we will find ourselves again in a similar situation.

Since when has the lack of doctors in emergency services become so common?

U.B. : I would say that this is a trend that has increased greatly over the past two years. What was an anomalous situation a few years ago, today it has become completely normal. It is even more unacceptable that such a service should be maintained with the overtime of the professionals, that is nothing more than a patch, but the problem will remain there.

And what has led to this situation?

U.B. What? I am clear that it is the result of poor management, it is the result of poor management by those responsible for OSI Interior and Emergency Services.

The lack of medical staff in Osakidetza is serious, the professionals are leaving and there is no possibility of replacing them. The most serious thing is that this situation was known a long time ago and that no remedy has been put on the table. Furthermore, working conditions are not good and people have to juggle enormous amounts in order to reconcile their professional and personal lives. There’s no planning, you don’t have billboards… That means that at any time you can get your shifts in.

Sara Ruilope: This clashes frontally with professional and family conciliation. Many professionals are without a sign, not knowing how they are going to work next week.

U.B. : Nor is it normal for the 2018 OPE to be resolved in 2024, after six years. Many Osakidetza professionals have spent six years of uncertainty.

sports club : This is another clear example of Osakidetza’s mismanagement. Deficiencies in the management of workers burn professionals. During all the time until the OPE resolution you are an occasional personal, you live in uncertainty. It is incomprehensible that what does not happen in other public administrations should happen here. Where I work, in my category, we're 50 collaborators, just two structural jobs. These are very precarious conditions.

This happens in all categories. In the emergency services, people work with a one-day contract, which is not the right conditions. Osakidetza today seems like a Temporary Work company.

Is the Public Administration responsible for channelling these obvious gaps in emergency services and primary care?

sports club : I have seen no change in recent months. The only thing I value as positive is that the political leaders have recognised for once that the situation is not good. In January everything was going well, but when the elections came, everyone admitted that there was a problem. One thing is to accept that. We'll see where they take us, I'm not very optimistic.

U.B. : I think the administration is not very concerned: in January a person died for lack of doctors and in August another person died for lack of doctors. No action has been taken in these eight months.

sports club : The situation of Laudio and the region is shameful. Two people have died in the last eight months and the situation has not changed at all. There was no need for a second case, but it has happened, and another citizen has died without adequate medical care. You can't have a health center without the right staff, so it's better to close the shutter. We are normalising the situation, and that is unacceptable.

U.B. : I would like to know what the municipalities of Aiaraldea are doing in the face of this situation. This is not just a Laudio problem. The lack of medical personnel in the mobile ICU or in the Continuing Care Point is a problem for the entire region. What measures are you taking to respond to the situation?

Do you think that the response of patients and citizens is being adequate?

U.B. : I believe that citizenship is not moving enough, I do not know if it is due to lack of information or fear. But a single demonstration is not going to change this situation.

sports club : I invite all patients to file complaints and complaints. I am aware that the answers given by Osakidetza are not individualised, but, despite that, I always encourage you to complain. Complaints cannot be reduced to mere statistics, otherwise it seems that everything works well, and that is not true. We have to open up gaps to reverse the situation.

U.B. Take an example. In the 2022 Christmas Eve I took the turn in the Llodio CAP and in the Amurrio CAP there was no doctor. All the patients in Amurrio had to come to Llodio. Many paid for their anger with me. In total, I saw 98 patients in a single 24-hour shift. I encouraged everyone to file a complaint, but only two or three people filled out the complaint sheet.

We have to go out into the street, there is no choice. We need permanent mobilisation to reverse the situation, and we cannot wait for another accident.