The call for ELA, LAB, CCOO, UGT and SATSE has had the support of several associations and a multitude of citizens who have joined the call against the “collapse of Osakidetza” and in support of Primary Care.
Thousands of people are currently participating in Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz in three manifestations “in favor of public healthca” and especially in protest “due to the situation in Primary Carehe”.
The convening unions, ELA, LAB, CCOO, UGT and SATSAnd they consider that public health “is at stake” and demand from Osakidetza a “real negotiation” and “solid long-term planning to strengthen Primary Care.” Four Primary Care associations, the College of Physicians, the pensioners’ movement and games like EH Bildu, Podemos y Ezker Anitza They support the protest, among others, to which numerous citizens have joined.
The most massive is being that of Bilbao. During the tour, headed by a banner with the motto “For decent working conditions. I do believe in public health“, slogans have been chanted in Basque and Spanish such as “For quality public healthcare, “The public sector is not for sale, the public sector defends itself”, “Less official cars and more Primary schools and hospitals”, “Let’s defend healthcare” and “Strengthen public services”.
Health workers in Bilbao. Photo: EFE
In Vitoria-Gasteiz Thousands of people have also supported the call of the unions to mobilize to demand more resources from Osakidetza. Several banners with the phrases “For decent working conditions” and “Cutting back on healthcare deadly decision. 60% of the temporary staff“They have led the way.
During the demonstration, posters were raised that read “Fewer excuses, more personal“, “Waiting lists kill”, “We are burned” or “Osakidetza do not take our lives”.
The protesters, lined up in two rows to respect the distances, have shouted against the Government of Iñigo Urkullu, which they have demanded to reverse the “cuts” in public health and to increase the workforce and improve the working conditions of the workers of Osakidetza, the 60% of them casual.
Also in Donostia-San Sebastian Thousands of people have participated in the demonstration after a first banner with the legend “For decent working conditions. I do believe in public health”.
A moment of the demonstration in Donostia. Photo: EFE
“The lack of personnel and means in Osakidetza is structural”
The convening unions have explained that Osakidetza’s problems of lack of personnel and means are “structural” and are not due to the pandemic and have warned the Minister of Health, Gotzone Sagardui, that if he does not face them protests will intensify, even with a strike.
They have denounced that in Euskadi the investment in health in relation to GDP (4.9%) has decreased during the last decade and that it is below the European average (7%) and the Spanish average (6%) and ELA has criticized that meanwhile there is a “record number of contracting private health insurance” in Euskadi.
They have also rejected the policy followed by Osakidetza to deal with the pandemic, “especially since October with the non-renewal of the contracts of 4,000 professionals, the reduction of hours in outpatient clinics, the closure of Continuous Care Points (PAC), the dismantling of vaccination centers and the reduction of tracking teams to a minimum.”
The spokeswoman for the nurses’ union Bet, Pilar Mendia, has claimed investment in Basque public health equals the European average and reaches 7% of GDP, that 25% be allocated to primary care and that the nursing staff be increased by about 3,000 people.
“It is not understood that with the skyrocketing figures, decisions are made that go in the opposite direction to what is logical. First it has been the ‘self-test’, then the ‘self-tracking’, the ‘self-management’ of casualties and now that some health centers restrict their hours“, he criticized.
Protesters in Donostia. Photo: EFE
For his part, the representative of IS IT OVER THERE, Igor Eizagirre, has considered that “the pandemic is an excuse to dismantle public health“. In the midst of a pandemic, the health budget “is less than that of 10 years ago and that of 2022 is also less than that of the previous year,” indicated Eizagirre, who has remarked that this responds to the fact that “there is a political decision to bet on private healthcare”.
Osakidetza “today is the largest ETT” in the CAV with 24,000 temporary workers, 58% of the workforce, and more than 9,0000 who have been temporary workers for an average of 8 years, he criticized.
ELA demands the urgent hiring of “more than 1,000 people” in Osakidetza, the replacement of workers from day one, and reinforcing the workforce, “because what is at stake is public health.”
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