The Department of Health of the Basque Government wants to close the cardiac surgery service in Basurto and concentrate on the hospital in Cruces on 17 November, but a court abandoned Osakidetza's will as a precautionary measure. The Department of Health is now called upon to withdraw the appeal to the resolution suspending the closure and to “restore the path of negotiation”.

“It is not isolated, it is systematic”

According to the unions SATSE, ELA, LAB, CCOO and UGT, the example of Basurto is not an isolated example, and the policy of Osakidetza assumes “the precariousness of working conditions and the reduction of health care to citizens”. “The problems of systematic work overload, situations of collapse in certain services, high rates of temporality, scarce staff are well known... These problems are especially serious in Primary Care and hospital emergencies and are a direct consequence of the political decisions and cuts applied in recent years”.

The trade unions say that the closure of the Basurto Hospital service is a reflection of the fact that, on the one hand, the Department of Health has no willingness to negotiate, “the court ruling indicates that Osakidetza has taken unilateral, arbitrary decisions.” Secondly, the closure of the service “opens the door to private healthcare, let us remember that in Álava and Gipuzkoa this service is subcontracted with private healthcare”. Thirdly, “Osakidetza continues to use economic and saving criteria when organizing the public health service”. Finally, they stress that all this implies a reduction in the quality of the service, “and this has a direct impact on the health of citizens”.

First of all, the trade unions have called the demonstration for the afternoon of 2 December: the mobilization will leave at 17:30 from the Basurto hospital itself.