Madrid Rises Up: Online Healthcare Plan Sparked Outrage in Madrid

A massive rally in Madrid called by associations of health professionals and residents denouncing the decline of the service run by regional governments in Spain demanded, on November 13, an improvement in public health.

About 670,000 demonstrators roamed the center of the Spanish capital, according to the organizers’ data, while the government sources indicated the number of participants at 200,000 people.

The protests were organized under the slogan “Madrid rises up for public health.” The organizers, who have the support of unions and political parties, accuse the head of the conservative regional government, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, of undermining this public service.

The demonstrators demanded the extension of protests across the country in defense of a good public health system, while chanting slogans against the head of the regional government and raising banners supporting the sector’s professionals.

The left-wing nationalist government, through the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Felix Bolanos, expressed his support for the demonstrators.

Besides Madrid, hundreds of people gathered in the northern city of Santander to demand an improvement in the public health service.

The sector specialists called for a strike last Friday in the region of Madrid, while various associations called for a strike starting from November 21 throughout Spain.

 

Staff Shortages

The protests were mainly against the government’s neglect of the health sector. Demonstrators have come out to protest against austerity policies and plans by the conservative regional government to provide emergency health care online partly due to staff shortages in public health centers.

Among the participants were famous artists, whole families with children and grandparents, politicians from different parties, trade union members, and public health workers.

In addition to calling for more investment, the demonstrators also demanded the resignation of Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

 

Worsening Conditions

In an interview with Al-Estiklal, the expert on sociology and researcher at Kent University Hamza Guenouni explained: “In Spain, the public health system is in agony after two years of pandemic. Health personnel are on the verge of saturation. Each time, more doctors decide to throw in the towel, in particular by anticipating retirement age, exhausted by the working conditions of recent months. A movement that risks aggravating an already very precarious medical situation.”

Le Monde newspaper reported that the Spanish public health system is on the verge of implosion. It suffers in particular from a very significant lack of personnel. There is one nurse per 2,500 inhabitants, compared to one per 1,000 in the rest of Europe.

Most young graduates prefer to work in northern European countries, where they are better paid and with permanent contracts. As for seniors, more and more of them are anticipating the age of retirement. This is the case of Roberto Colino, who has just turned 63. He has been a family doctor for 40 years and will retire two years before the legal age.

He said: “I never thought I was going to retire before. I went to find out about my rights and made the decision at the time. Even if I’m going to lose a little money, because my pension is below my salary, but now it’s no longer worth working in conditions that are indecent for patients and for us as professionals.”

 

Privatization & bureaucracy

For Spanish doctors, the entire public health system is impacted by privatization. Over the past twenty years, basic services have been outsourced, which has led to a deterioration in the quality of these services, as Roberto explained to Le Monde.

He stressed that the abandonment of public health has been gradual. First, Spain outsourced cleaning services or catering in hospitals, but now it is the analyses, x-rays, and operations that are carried out in the private sector. With the pandemic crisis, the system completely exploded, and it survives thanks to the will of the professionals who have redoubled their efforts and thanks to this vocation of certain doctors.

The other flaw in the system denounced by the doctors is the overload of bureaucracy. Healthcare workers have to spend more time on paperwork than caring for their patients.

The pandemic represented an overload of work, but also and above all an overload of bureaucracy. The doctors have to deal with protocols that change all the time, which is absurd. A very heavy bureaucracy, in a time that doctors should spend taking care of the patients.

According to the Spanish Medical College, nearly 45% of health workers have suffered from burnout, deep professional exhaustion, in the last twelve months.

 

World Wide Phenomenon

The shortage of caregivers is widespread and extends to the whole world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there will be a shortage of 15 million health professionals by 2030. While low-income countries are particularly affected, all countries, regardless of their level of development, face challenges in training, recruiting, and distributing their workforce.

The trend has been known for several years, and the causes are well identified: the world population is aging, which will require more and more care, as will the increase in chronic diseases, while at the same time, health personnel is not renewed enough following retirements, and that training capacities are limited.

All of this has, moreover, been reinforced and aggravated by the health crisis linked to Covid-19. A WHO study published in July showed that at the start of the epidemic, in Europe, hospital services, dental care, and mental health services were the most disrupted.

From now on, it is primary care and emergency care that pay for the consequences of the crisis. All European countries are affected by this disorganization of care and the shortage of caregivers.

In Germany, the shortage of nursing staff is not a new problem, but it has worsened in recent years. According to a recent study carried out by the Competence Center for Skilled Workers for the German Ministry of Economics, more than 35,000 positions were vacant across the sector at the end of 2021, an increase of around 40% in the space of a decade.