Primary Care continues to demand more means in the Canary Islands
The doctors of the health centers demand a reinforcement of the insoles to avoid the deterioration of the area. They ask to reduce administrative tasks because they take time away from patient care.
The Primary Care doctors of the Canary Islands have claimed this Sunday to the administration
more means and a reinforcement of the templates in the health centers to avoid the deterioration of the area and to be able to provide a better public service to the citizen.
This was stated by the spokeswoman for the Platform 'Save Primary Care' (AMAPCAN) and family doctor, Elena Pérez, in statements to the media during a concentration in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria framed in the movement 'Save Primary Care ', which has held protests throughout the Spanish territory and which in the capital of Gran Canaria has brought together more than fifty professionals.
“We are here because the population deserves better quality care. The pandemic has come to emphasize once again the importance of putting health at the center and we believe that it is something that has to be taken as a priority by political representatives », he explained.
Regarding the main improvements that are necessary in Primary Care, the spokesperson pointed out that
They are not new demands, but rather medical organizations and platforms have been asking for them "for a long time".
In this regard, he placed special emphasis on the fact that every time some progress has been made in this area, it has been thanks to pressure from citizens and professionals.
More staff and less administrative tasks
As needs of Primary Care, Pérez pointed to an increase in the budget allocated to the area to increase the number of professionals, as well as an organizational change to reduce the purely administrative tasks that doctors have to perform and that take time away from consultations medical as such.
“The figure of the health administrator is something that must be promoted – he continued – and here we need to expand the staff quite a bit”.
Questioned by the saturation that the different waves of the coronavirus have created in Primary Care and the possibility of a seventh wave of the virus, she noted that the demands of the doctors are aimed at having a "strong" Primary Care to respond "to what come".
Regarding the end of the restrictions, he declared that a possible new wave is something of concern since there is currently "uncertainty" because the protocol that comes into force to start being used on Monday has arrived on Friday afternoon and there are some doubts about its application.
Working conditions "increasingly precarious
All in all, 'Save Primary Care' has ensured that the working conditions of Primary Care doctors are "increasingly precarious" because "the overload persists due to the chronic lack" of personnel, with "oversized" quotas, agendas " without limit that support impossible demands” to manage with quality, “insufficient” time to assess patients.
He also added that
the bureaucracy "increases day by day, taking time away from direct patient care", which indicates that the Canary Islands have one of the "highest" rates of temporary employment in the State, therefore, they demand to recover the quality of care that has been “lost over the years”.
The Platform has clarified that the claims go through increasing the financing of Primary Care that "compensates for the loss suffered over the years and allows progress in the improvement" in assistance.
Finally, he has understood that it is "essential to adapt" the templates to the population, as well as adjust the agendas to guarantee a minimum time per patient "sufficient to respond to their needs", in addition to "reducing" the bureaucracy that "does not" adds value to the patient, improve communication with Hospital Care, adapt the staff of health centers, "increasing it both in the number of professionals and incorporating new profiles".
