"We are now below the historical figures in private concerts" - La Provincia

In view of the billboard installed this week next to the Insular-Maternal and Child Hospital Complex, with the slogan "No to the business with nuclear medicine", the initial reluctance due to its origin of the public company increases ...

I hope the results will silence the criticism, and our way of proceeding, because José Manuel Baltar he is nothing more than the head of a team, it is tremendously important, because the achievements of the counseling are the result of a collective work that has managed to drag all the professionals of this house. When you assume a position like that, certain ideological environments have certain prejudices in the health field and you have to respect them. Other positions come from the private sector in other ministries and nobody surprised or found it anomalous. All have had directors from companies, except for Health, I hope you feel a precedent. Whatever the scope, we can all contribute in terms of growth and development, if you are willing to work, to produce, why not the private? Passing through the private sphere gave me knowledge that I did not have, in the same way that I was very rich in everything I learned from the public, so I hope to be able to convey to the administration the good thing about my time in the company.

Did the government press for the withdrawal of the fence in 24 hours?

I suppose not. I do not know how it was neither to put it nor to remove it. I have been tremendously respectful of the criticism from the first day and I will continue to be so, although sometimes I have the feeling that they are not always fair. The way to build public health is to think about more infrastructures and plans, building the future. Interestingly, many of those who criticize me did not leave a plan on the table. For this reason, we will transfer to the deputies in Parliament that we will leave a public infrastructure plan on the table, we are currently working on a lot of development initiatives, of effective investments, in technology, robotics, operating rooms, beds, process automation ...

And also in more budget of nuclear medicine in favor of San Roque.

I think it's not like this. One thing is what is verbalized and another is reality. There are technical reports, I defended it in parliament and I did not get an answer to the contrary. The one who had made a determined decision, did not accredit it technically. A deputy sent me the so-called pre-report in parliament, one was published in the press completely because it does not go beyond an Excel sheet and the other is a document supported by a large volume of technicians who have analyzed the activity of the services public, of the different units within the network, of investment levels ... And I abstain in all matters of agreement, systematically, to the director of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS) falls this terrible cigar because having a counselor who comes from the private has forced Conrado Domínguez to assume absolute responsibilities.

Are not there more concerts with private health than before?

I do not have concrete figures right now, but in proportional terms we are below what historically existed. In the absence of physical infrastructure, operating rooms and beds, we have strengthened a line, using a traditional scheme that came from the stage prior to the regional transfers and then took advantage of Román Rodríguez, who is renting other people's resources with their own professionals, which contributes a very important level of activity with a much lower cost because it costs from 25 to 30% less each process. There are groups and lobbies that defend certain approaches, in one direction and the opposite, but we have to follow the line marked in the Commitment to improve public health: first the public, and when we do not arrive, look for a solution wherever there is, if we can pay.

Does one of the less political advisers feel the objective of a political hunt?

I do not feel any of that, because in my day to day I focus on building. We were lucky that both Conrado and I understood that we had to build a new house, in the sense of incorporating the participation of professionals and patients. And we elaborate with all, together, a kind of philosophical basis for the future that is the Commitment to improve public health, with more than 60 collective signers of the whole society. For the first time, we incorporate participation as something built between all and that has come to stay, I say for those who come, they will have no choice but to work on these terms.

On the eve of elections, the parliamentary approval of the document seems more distant than the disapproval of its management as received by Cristina Valido, Minister of Employment, Social Policies and Housing.

The things that are coming will come. It will be difficult, probably, but it does not mean that we do not continue working. Or we begin to withdraw health as a weapon thrown between some parties and others or the damage will be for the entire society, not for politicians or those who hold the debate, but for citizens. Our responsibility as managers of this house is that we acquired with the signers of the Commitment so that, really, it is a solid foundation with the objective that, we or whoever happens to us, reach a social and political pact for health. The document has a long journey, maybe it can not be presented in 2019 but maybe it's the one who touches it, and hopefully it's us, it does in 2020 or the following year, you can not abandon the goal. There is a motion passed in the Senate with the unanimity of all the political parties, and I went to reinforce that idea with our Commitment, in which it is precisely stated that a social and political pact must be reached for health at the State level. We will continue fighting and I believe that all the signatories will continue in that line. The advantage is that it has no date, you can build a stronger foundation every time so that the final building is the most irreversible.

What can advance from the waiting lists of the second semester of the year?

I try to overtake little. We will fulfill the commitment acquired by the president[[Fernando Clavijo]in the debate of the nationality of this year, a decrease of 5%, if I remember correctly. We are on the line, I do not think there will be any surprises. We hope that the results will be magnificent once again, because of a fundamental question, because it means and consolidates a change of trend. We had been experiencing a very complex sustained growth for a few years, so it was about investing and reversing. We have found a way that seems to bring us closer to our dream of placing ourselves below 100 days or reaching 90. Although we still have a great problem of accessibility in public health, patients are still waiting, we have improved a lot in two years , four times more than the national average on the waiting list.

Without statistical makeup?

I already know less about mathematics and statistics than about management techniques or human resources, it's my life since I was 23 years old. They have given recognition to the SCS this year as the organism that has improved the most in transparency, and recently that famous parliamentary committee that oversees the audit of the waiting lists with university teams has just been constituted, we are the first team to accept it. This story has to end, it is not a problem to be accused of makeup, also to Roldós [Mercedes], Mulberry [Jesús, antecesores en el cargo] every time the number was positive. Probably, the deviations and problems to solve the question of the waitings would have better solution if we were all together than fighting each other, because the opportunist elements take advantage of those confrontations to get on the car that disagrees. And I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the professionals, and it is not a topic, I say it because clearly a descent is being achieved with a tremendous effort from our staff. That is why we are making another great effort, together with the Ministry [de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social], because we need to attract professionals, we can not continue thinking about squeezing people in this way, doubling days or working on weekends. You have to start thinking about creating your own teams that will give new resolution capabilities with the new infrastructures.

And, beyond the public offer of employment, does any measure advance for the deficit of specialists?

When we arrived, the biggest problem was job instability, another of the things that they did not think we were going to meet. Among the initial challenges of counseling, we talked about almost 80% of the staff in situations of instability and almost 30% in deregulated contracts ... Many people who have signed the contract are criticized Commitment but I want to thank that bet because being together we have managed to take steps as complex as stabilize more than 3,000 people and take out 7,198 seats in an OPE, together with 2016 to 2018 plus an extraordinary. It is the great way, a great step taken, if this plan is solved we will go around that goal of 6% in instability. We also propose to the Ministry a series of proposals that contemplate the Commitment, claims such as the declaration of centers of reference, as it is an archipelagic territory as recognized by the Law of Cohesion and Quality. And the other fundamental element on the table is that Canarias needs a specific treatment in the questions of specialists. We want to be able to motivate our MIR [médico interno residente] by linking continuity contracts to training cycles, for example, but the most we have achieved is that all the possible places have been published this year, for the first time it is summoned and the totality is covered, not even one has been left free. We will continue fighting, it is an element that we always carry as the base point of our negotiating agenda in our relations with the State. The minister [María Luisa Carcedo] He undertook to analyze it seriously in November, I hope he goes a little better than the Orkambi ...

When will the financing and public dispensation of this medicine against cystic fibrosis in the Canary Islands?

It will begin to dispense already. It has been a strictly autonomous decision, although it is not the communities that decide the medicines that are financed and we try to have a principle of total institutional loyalty, the Ministry has not accompanied us, but we understood, advised by our professionals, that they could not wait any longer. certain patients, so the dispensing will be very fast. Hopefully the decision will also be taken soon at the state level, as happened with the Spinraza [contra la atrofia muscular espinal], we finance it in the Canary Islands and after a month, also Madrid, I hope it's the same.

And almost in winter, a month from the flu peak, hopefully the saturation of emergencies is not the same ...

I'd like it not to happen this year, but I doubt it can be avoided, that's why I just want to ask for understanding. The saturation of emergencies has many components, but we are working so that there is a before and after the Pluscan [ Plan de Urgencias Sanitarias de Canarias], so there are fewer problems. By the end of this year, 36 of 60 Pluscan work lines will have been completed, evidently 24 are missing until 2020, but we have two years left. There are already more than 200 professionals hired, regardless of the next growth in the new health transport contest. A lot of points of the Archipelago has also been equipped with medicalized ambulances and air transport has been consolidated. Since the emergency of the Insular and the University Hospital of the Canary Islands, La Candelaria recovered in three months after the fire in summer after an investment of one million euros without the population almost felt the works and comes its major reform with the expansion from Doctor Negrín, Fuerteventura ... We also have a higher level of resolution in primary care, with radiology and analytical services 24 hours a day, which means fewer people access the hospital. With our levels of care pressure, because the population is aging, we have had more citizens but fewer peaks than last year in emergencies, every day we do a little better.

What will become of you in 2019?

I want to think that this is not going to end, at least, I work as if it would never end. I have always done it. In my last company, I had to pick up the office. We are in a political sphere, if for what it was this cycle closes, logically, I will go to work where they consider that I can be useful, for health, I would like it to be in the same field.

I mean, he wants to continue ...

If the team captain is still on the line as he has been up to now, of course, he would have no problem continuing in Sanidad. I want to convey my total gratitude to the President of the Government [Fernando Clavijo] because this is a collective work and I am lucky to have a great captain, it is tremendously important, we have worked with a lot of comfort. Many fruits have already been collected, but there are other bets and investments that I would love to see materialized, for example, the new towers of the Materno Infantil, the comprehensive reform of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands, the extensions of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote or La Palma ... Of course I would like to see everything reflected, but I guess the important thing is that there are many projects in the office that will end up being realities.

And prepare yourself for more criticism if you return to private healthcare.

Well, I have my leave of absence where I have it, and the right to eat. When I leave, at least, I would like the many associations of professionals and patients that we are working with to be, really, those who wrote these last lines of my curriculum, it is my big dream. They are the ones who have to say that I worked honestly. The Patient School, the consolidation of the participatory budgeting model, the Active Listening website as the heart of this house will be our great achievements. When patients are given the voice one is surprised, believes that people will come through the door asking for money and, however, when they are jointly responsible, they are much more reasonable and less histrionic in demand. And that the return will be controversial? Probably, but for seven days before taking possession, uninterrupted, they said atrocities of me, scares, but it has taken me to stop reading enough journalists (laughs). Out of sight, out of mind.