The Secretary of Health and Sociosanitary Services for UGT Public Services of Córdoba, Mari Carmen Heredia, has described the management of the Regional Ministry of Health for the SAS summer plan in the province as "calamitous." The union urges an extraordinary and urgent call for nursing positions due to the scarcity of professionals in Córdoba's healthcare centers.
For years, UGT has been denouncing that the Reina Sofía University Hospital staff is insufficient year-round, a situation that becomes critically worse during the summer period. Heredia holds the Regional Ministry of Health responsible for the lack of foresight and the unavailability of candidates in the single employment pool.
The union criticizes that, despite announcements of calls for applications, the number and duration of the offered contracts are insufficient. This leads healthcare professionals, particularly nurses and nursing assistants (TCAE), to move to other autonomous communities that offer longer contracts, from three to six months, compared to a maximum of three months in Andalusia.
The categories facing the most difficulty and depleted from the employment pool include nursing, TCAE, pharmacy technicians, administrative assistants, and orderlies. Urgent needs are for nurses, speech therapists, and midwives, for whom there are no longer any available in the additional lists, hindering the coverage of summer holidays for various professional categories.
The situation is further complicated by the lack of reinforcement in Primary Care due to a shortage of Family Doctors, which will force users to go to emergency rooms. Heredia laments that this has become an "endemic" problem as the Regional Government fails to anticipate real needs and retain professionals who finish their training each year.
The union accuses the Regional Government of "data manipulation" by increasing the number of contracts without specifying their duration, which could include one or two-day contracts counted the same as three-month ones. Real figures indicate that only 25% of Primary Care Health Centers in Andalusia will open in the afternoons, none in Córdoba, and the same percentage of operating rooms will remain closed.
Furthermore, 15% of hospital beds will be inoperative. The SAS intends to cover the needs of 21,000 doctors with 1,800 contracts, 33,000 nurses with 14,000 contracts, and 21,000 TCAE with 10,000 contracts, according to UGT.
