“We were very pleased that I was caring for the children with our pediatrician.” With these words she describes the pediatrician at the Otxarkoaga Health Center, Xandra Claveria, neighbor of the Otxarkoaga Bilbaíno neighborhood. When he took the child to the health center in October, he found that he had no pediatrician. “They told me they couldn’t attend because there was no pediatrician. It is legitimate for the pediatrician to unsubscribe, but they should replace it.”

When they go to the Otxarkoaga health center, the children are attended by the nurse, but they can only be observed. This causes uncertainty because the pediatrician has the last word: “I wanted to know if the child had infections and the nurse told me no, but I couldn’t be assured. In addition, if a medicine is needed, it cannot be administered.” Claveria complains that in case of worsening he tells them to go to the emergency room: “If after an emergency situation we need to monitor the disease, we can do nothing because there are no doctors.”

In the absence of pediatricians, they are asked to go to the emergency room in Basurto and to the health center in Begoña, but in Begoña there is no pediatrician and the emergencies are “crowded”: “A child with urinary infection had to stay four hours waiting to get the result. The immediate result at the Health Center.” He also explains that it is “difficult” for families to move around the neighborhood: “Some are unique mothers and if they have more children you have to go to the emergency room with all the children and others have to take a taxi.” In addition, as there are people at risk in the area, family members fear getting sick: “Lately there are many viruses, many of which are concentrated in emergencies.”

500 signatures

Since they do not have a pediatrician, at the moment there is usually a substitute, but only two hours: “Children should have the right to use the health centre.” That’s why when they asked for an appointment in October there was a two-week waiting list, but they have to wait more and more: “If we call now, they give us an appointment with the pediatrician by March.” Therefore, he denounces that due to the lack of doctors children do not receive the care they need.

Thus, Claveria has received five hundred signatures to claim the right of children to have a pediatrician and, along with the members of the Amuge association, has taken them to the health center: “At the moment we have not received a reply, but they have a period of one month to reply.”