Ayuso we want to use it! More public health and less mascletà! We want pediatricians to care for us in Las Tablas! These were the most chanted phrases among the residents of the northern neighborhood of the capital whose outpatient clinic began operating in December at a minimum: 4 doctors and 1 pediatrician, compared to the 41 health workers that the Community of Madrid had scheduled a long time ago in relation to its size and volume of patients, which amounts to approximately 25,000 residents of the area.
Faced with this reality, around 400 residents of the aforementioned neighborhood yesterday went out to the demonstration called by the Neighborhood Association to demand that the Ministry of Health appoint doctors, nurses and the rest of the health workers (physiotherapists, dentists, midwives, orderlies...) for the new health center, which has been operating at minimum levels for almost three months, like a ghost center.
With posters of "I want my pediatrician", even announcing the concentration of "without doctors and health workers there is no health", the residents, accompanied by opposition politicians, especially from the PSOE and Más Madrid, protested the Thursday afternoon due to the lack of staff in a primary care health center that has taken 17 years to build and has now been opened without staff planning and with the aim of keeping its doors open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. the night.
Little by little, the entire families and their children, in a festive atmosphere, took the microphone in defense, above all, of public health. Some young people carried posters made from home, which at the end of the mobilization they hung at the entrance to the health center.
In the mobilization, councilor Reyes Maroto and deputy Mar Espinar for the PSOE could be seen. Councilor Eduardo Rubiño and deputies Marta Carmona and Marisa Escalante from Más Madrid also attended. Maroto recalled that "it is a ghost clinic because there is no staff." And she asked Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida "to get involved in the quality of life of citizens and not be complicit in the dismantling of primary care centers."
Last week, the socialist spokesperson in the Assembly, Carlos Moreno, intervened demanding more staff for this new clinic, as well as for the Navalcarnero one. And he explained the bad situation that primary care is going through in the Community of Madrid.
According to Lorenzo Álvarez, president of the Las Tablas Neighborhood Association, "of the 41 professionals approved by the Community of Madrid, only "four doctors, a pediatrician and a nurse per shift" make up the staff. Furthermore, he adds, "there has been forced some professionals to move from the center of the nearby Sanchinarro neighborhood.
"This number of health workers," he explains, "is a ridiculous figure to serve the 25,200 residents with a health card who live in the neighborhood and are assigned to this center." In addition, he clarifies, "of the patients, 1 every 4 are less than 10 years old." That is, some 6,520 children will have only one pediatrician on the morning shift to be cared for. Some union sources point out that a second doctor has been assigned as a pediatrician, despite not having said degree.
The Community of Madrid invested 13.28 million euros in the construction of the center and it took 4 years to complete the works and now "it is opening without staff," Álvarez repeats.
Urgently, the Primary Care Management summoned the neighborhood association yesterday, a few hours before the mobilization, to try to calm the waters.
Álvarez explains to La Vanguardia that "they have promised us that before the summer the staff will be made up of 90% of the necessary personnel, but specialists such as midwives, dentists or physiotherapists will take longer to arrive." In fact, more than half the center is closed and access to the general public is prohibited due to lack of professionals.
