Three years ago, the Health Service abolished a medical position in Roncal. For this reason, they stayed with two doctors and three nurses to take care of the entire valley. In November, the management of the health center in Izaba announced the abolition of a nursing position. Amparo Viñuales, mayor of Roncal and former nurse, denounces that the decision has been “arbitrary” and has not been taken into account by the city council: “We are representatives of the population and decisions of this kind should always be consulted with the people in charge of the area. We are the ones who really know the needs of the area.”

This decision is opposed by the municipalities of Uztarroz, Urzainki, Roncal, Garde, Burgi and Bidankoz, which are all municipalities in the Roncal valley except Iza. They met with the management of the health center in Izaba to ask for explanations of why and a plan for the management of the area and to express their “surprise” and “anger”. After that, on January 16, the Health System informed them that it adhered to the decision taken by the Health Center of Izaba and that the nurse will not return. “To our surprise, they only showed us the plan of the offices of the peoples located in the south. Only the offices of Roncal and Burgi will be open in three days, the offices of Garde in two and the offices of Bidangoze in only one.”

Regarding the reason for the nurse’s removal, Viñuales says that the arguments put forward by the Health System are “without depth”: “They have only taken into account the number of health cards and have not taken into account the type of population. Whether they are old or not, they have chronic illnesses.” For this reason, they are asked to carry out an “in-depth” study.

Viñuales has been a nurse for twenty-nine years; she is well aware of the needs and workload in the valley. He explains that when there are only two professionals, if one gets sick, the entire workload falls on one person, and only emergencies can be attended. For this reason, it says that it will affect preventive measures: “Primary care isn’t just about cures, injections, and things like that. Nurses play a very important role in prevention, but by eliminating a nursing position they compromise care, prevention and community health.”

A measure that increases depopulation

It also denounces that it is a measure that “increases” rural depopulation. It stresses that it is “very important” to guarantee public services to avoid depopulation and to support education, health and growth: “In addition to the difficulties we have, if you remove all these mandatory services, people will not decide to live here.”

Viñuales wants to make it clear that the anger of the municipalities is not due to the care offered by health professionals. They are happy with the staff and don’t want the service to be reduced any further. Therefore, they will continue to talk to Health: “All the decisions have been communicated to us later, which is very serious. We must defend the basic services of our area.”