The Ministry of Health will study, together with the Ministry of Finance and Civil Service, the requalification of the category of nurses, as well as the rest of the health professions: "From nurses to janitors", indicated the minister Monica Garcia. According to the head of Health, the role of nurses must be recognized. "Without them, the health system falls. It's time to study it", explained García after the meeting of the Interterritorial Health Council.
Going up in category (from A2, where they are currently, to A1, which includes doctors) has been a demand of nurses since the Bologna plan came into force more than a decade ago, which eliminate diplomas and turned Nursing into a degree. The current categorization maintains that A2 is for diplomas, and A1, for the equivalents to graduates, with which doctors are registered. This increase in category entails not only greater remuneration, but also other job functions.
Nurses are not the only ones calling for a review of the categories. System administrators also claim a new category of health administrators, senior technicians want to advance from level C1 to B, and nursing assistants, from C2 to C1.
The Minister of Health insists that they will work with the Public Service for the reclassification of the health categories as a whole. For his part, the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, announced that very soon there will be meetings with professional organizations to discuss this issue.
For years, nursing has been demanding a requalification that has not arrived. But the Catalan professionals have succeeded, after several days of strike, in getting the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, to commit to bringing the claim before the Ministry of Health, both at the human resources meeting held on Monday, and at the interterritorial yesterday
One of the topics at the press conference after the meeting of the ministry with the autonomous communities was the beginning of contacts with the general direction of Consumption (now registered in the Ministry of Social Rights) to evaluate a possible regulatory framework for energy drinks. It has not yet been addressed whether minors will be prohibited from consuming it, as Galicia has already done, but the measures "will be in line", explained Javier Padilla.
The health councilors of the PP, the majority, expressed discomfort with the fact that the agenda did not include the deficit of human resources in primary care, a paradoxical complaint, since a monographic meeting will be held in the first weeks of January on this point, during which the creation of places, the acceleration of accreditation by the communities, the flexibility of retirement and new contracts for the MIRs will be put on the table.
