"Family doctors have to be 50% of the system, and we are 30%" | Society

It is the best in the world. Not only do his patients, his colleagues in the World Organization of Family Medicine (WONCA for its acronym in English) have been recognized this Monday. The family doctor Veronica Casado says that it is by spending more than three decades in the consultation working to improve assistance by training other doctors. And is that this Valladolid 57 years old born in Reims (France) was going to teacher. "I spent hours and hours teaching my dolls," he says. But his father was to blame for choosing the phonendoscope. "One day he told me: Who do you think teaches doctors? Other doctors And that's why he convinced me, "he says laughing.

It is the first time that a Spanish woman has won this award. That's why his name has generated so much fuss. He attends EL PAÍS at the Barajas Airport, in Madrid, a couple of hours before catching a plane that will take him to Seoul (South Korea), where the prize is delivered. "Now I know what the famous ones feel", she escapes when other media are assaulted by camera in hand. Her husband, also a family doctor, waits in line to check. Married speaks with veneration of his work. He does it didactically and jumps right away when asked about the problems of his specialty: "It's not that doctors are missing, it's that it's planned fatal. We have been pointing out for some time that international standards hold that family doctors have to be 50% in the system. And we are 30%"He says.

He hopes that the recognition, which extends to the whole family medicine in Spain, serves "to make people think about where the steps and funding have to go, because you have to create more squares" The doctor spend seven hours in the center. In addition, he dedicates another hour a day to work sessions for residents. He presents the case of a patient that they have to think and solve. Then, for their consultation at the Parquesol health center in Valladolid, "the most complex patients" pass. And remember who has COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and continues to smoke. They are the ones who "need to see slowly every so often" to make sure they "have everything well controlled". Afterwards it is the turn of the people by appointment. And, in the end, scheduled homes, where palliative care or treat patients who can not go to the health center.

"I am constantly assisting and training, the research I leave for outside of my work schedule," he says. Married recognizes that this is one of the shortcomings of primary care, which barely leaves time for research. And even so he has participated throughout his career in more than 600 scientific works; has published four books on the specialty, including the Treaty of Family and Community Medicine; has authored another 32, and has intervened in more than 300 national and international symposia, in which he recalls that "we must continue to develop the training of doctors in the family approach, because the patient is better known if his patient is known. family. If you have a family full of obese or smokers, it is easier to have disease, "he says. And so, the work is easier.

Knowing the patient and creating a bond of trust with him is the obsession of this doctor, because in many cases it is the emotional support and safety net of the people. "There are times when someone comes very scared because a stain has been found and you say: Buah! Only that gesture calms a lot. That is very important, "he says. And is that Casado says that "family medicine is the medicine of people." Although she believes that there should be super-specialized doctors who see only one organ, the doctor maintains that "you always have to see people, because behind that sick heart there is a person".

Dr. Casado is smiling when she talks about the young people she forms. "Little by little you release them and you listen to them. It makes you very funny, because they are like clones. It is not true that they are not like before; there are them with desire, passionate about family medicine who believe it and want to fight for it, "he says. And he complains that the specialty is reproached for not attracting doctors so much that they will start their career. "In 6th grade, the medical students are with us and there they change their heads in a spectacular way. They are the most valued rotations, because they understand what medicine is of high prevalence. " An announcement is made to the passengers of the flight to Seoul. And sentence: "If politicians put the batteries and young people still want, the health system has a future."