Madrid will finally have 175 trackers to detect, control and prevent a possible outbreak of the coronavirus far from the 400 announced by the Ministry of Health. The health unions report that, for now, there are only 16 professionals hired for this work and that, of the total, 40 are teleoperators. They also insist: Primary care continues overflowing. Of the reinforcements announced by the regional government of 836 toilets, to reinforce the health centers in the ‘de-escalation’, finally only hired 30%.
Where are the trackers you promised the community of Madrid? “We have no information,” is one of the most repeated responses by the health unions consulted by Vozpópuli. Initially there were going to be 400, as indicated by the Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero. Finally, it has been known for days that the number has decreased significantly: they will be more than 172 people, according to data from the Ministry of Health. According to Health, the teams will incorporate health inspectors and personnel from the municipal teams Public Health.
“First of all what is asked is transparency in hiring and transparency in the profile they are looking for. What cannot be is that we have passed the phase and nobody is able to tell us who is tracking and how it’s being done, “he points out to Vozpópuli Alda Recas from the Madrid Independent Nursing Association (Love). The profile, stresses, is important, “because make traceability of a contagion is not so simple, you have to train the staff, it is not worth leaving it in the hands of anyone.
A plan for the ‘de-escalation’
CCOO Health Madrid warned this week of how the reinforcements of personnel that the Ministry guaranteed in Primary Care (AP) and Public Health had not finally arrived when the Ministry of Health forced the region to present a ‘de-escalation’ plan to monitor and epidemiological surveillance of patients with coronavirus.
The Community was then in Phase 0, pending moving to Phase 1 on May 18, and Vice President Ignacio Aguado announced that he would be hiring 400 Public Health technicians to keep track of the virus in the region and 836 reinforcement professionals for a Primary Care that in those days already feared the post-pandemic.
According to data collected by CCOO Sanidad Madrid, the primary reinforcements have materialized in 252 contracts (30% of those committed) and of the 400 trackers that were announced, so far only hired 16 from a total of 175.
Of these, according to the same sources, 16 contracts were for Resident Internal Physicians (MIR) of Preventive medicine and public health last year; 20 for third and fourth year MIR with Public Health Technician contracts; 11 inspectors; and 40 telemarketers, seeking to complete up to the announced figure with support personnel from Municipal Health.
In late May, the City of Madrid offered the regional government its 16 centers municipal health and one hundred professionals for the tracking of infections. According to Alda Recas, at the moment the nurses of the mentioned centers have commented “that they are not collaborating as trackers. “
Lack of trained personnel
“Right now one of the pillars most important of the management of this epidemic, is knowing how to get to the possible cases and stop the transmission of the virus and for that you need people skilled in Public Health who can track the cases well, “says Alda Recas, while, one of The problems of health in Madrid is that, precisely, the General Directorate of Public Health it is understaffed. “There is very few epidemiologists “, indicates.
In health centers, she adds, specialist nurses in Family and Community Nursing “could perfectly organize that work with Public HealthIn fact, this is the way it is done in other communities, such as Castilla-La Mancha where these professionals (a total of 427) are in charge of this task of investigating the contacts of cases suspected of suffering from covid-19.
Last month, the Satse Nursing Union was also asking that nurses be the ones who, from Primary care, they worked as trackers as, in addition to Castilla-La Mancha, it already happens in Euskadi or Andalusia.
‘Border effect’ in Primary Care
Despite the fact that the community has advanced in phase, the health centers are still suffocated, they denounce health unions. Reinforcement contracts in health centers, local offices and Primary Care Emergency Services (SUAP), for the ‘de-escalation’ plan in Madrid. According to data provided by CCOO Sanidad Madrid, as of June 2, the recruitment in Primary Care was 126 nurses, 47 Resident Internal Nurses (EIR), 58 Family Medicine MIR and 21 professionals from the Prevention service.
CCOO Health advises that in Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla-León they offer healthcare providers contracts of between two and three years, compared to the 6 months that Madrid offers
In Primary, the region’s vice president, they recall, committed contracts to 836 reinforcement professionals: 335 Family doctors of which 223 would be MIR, 47 EIR, 249 nurses and, the rest, contracts of other categories.
The union warns that, in addition, Madrid has a problem for “hire and retain” professionals for a “border effect” because Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla-León They offer contracts to health workers between two and three years long, compared to the 6 months offered by the region chaired by Isabel Ayuso.
“Junk contracts” to residents
As stressed Alice Martin, President of the Primary Care Sector of the Association of Doctors and Graduates of Madrid (Amyts) -which just a few days ago called for the cessation of the dome of Primary care in the Community for the, in your opinion, “lousy management” of the coronavirus crisis- the “pressure” on the doctors of the health centers is enormous.
Specifically, indicates Martín, about those who ended up last May 26 their residence and that they are already specialists in Family Medicine or Pediatrics, Amyts denounces that “they are being loved force signing junk contracts“
Reinforcement contracts, detailed from the medical union, where “these professionals are used to cover patches until the end of the year and by various centers “of the community due to the deficit of doctors who suffer the Primary care. According to the union, not only is this reinforcement contract being offered to those specialists who have already completed their residency, but “they are being coerced to accept them. “
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