Doctors from all over Spain sign a petition asking for the end of these days
MADRID, 25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has assured that she hopes to end the 24-hour shifts of health professionals “throughout this legislature”, within the framework of the reform of the Framework Statute, since they “represent an anachronism.”
“We are working on the reform of the Framework Statute to improve the conditions of our health professionals, and one of the priority issues to address is the anachronism represented by 24-hour shifts, for which we have professionals who are doing more than 50 hours a week,” stated the minister, in statements to the media. “We think it doesn’t make sense,” she added.
García has spoken this way in a context of mobilization of the profession for this cause. Under the motto ‘We can’t take it anymore’, since last February 3, doctors from various parts of Spain have been denouncing, through ‘Change.org’, that the 24-hour days in a row “put the lives of patients at risk.” “. The petition already has nearly 78,000 signatures.
“You arrive at the emergency room. You are very serious and they admit you to the ICU. A doctor has to make a decision that will mean that you live or die. Do you prefer a clear-headed doctor or one who hasn’t slept for 20 hours?” declared Tamara Contreras. , specialist in Intensive Care and promoter of the ‘Change.org’ petition.
In this sense, Contreras relates that, on a recent shift in his ICU in which he had to care for a very seriously ill patient after not sleeping for 20 hours, his legs were shaking due to fatigue. “It was difficult for me to string together a sentence. My eyelids drooped. I had palpitations and my head was pounding,” he said.
He has also explained that, due to accumulated fatigue, doctors make more serious errors in 24-hour shifts and more diagnostic errors, in addition to being slower in making decisions. “We can’t react as well. And that worsens the care our patients receive,” she said.
Due to the “extreme exhaustion” that they claim they are suffering, the signatories ask the Ministry of Health to modify the current legislation so that these days “are reduced to a maximum of 12, as in the United Kingdom.” “Patients deserve doctors who care for them in good physical and mental condition,” they have claimed.
The creator of the initiative criticizes that Spain continues “as it did 50 years ago”, with an “archaic model.” “Are we really still wondering why there is a flight of doctors in Spain?” she expressed. “Enough of conforming. This has to change,” she said.
Contreras has clarified that most of a doctor’s salary comes from guards, which is why many of them defend this system. “But settling for this is not the solution. We must ask that our salary continue to be decent without having to give up doing our job with full powers. There are alternatives and it is time for us to demand a solution,” he maintains.
The intensivist has also criticized the fact that the duration of these guards is justified by the vocation. “It is one thing that we have a vocation and another that we must accept this,” she insists.
Since Contreras launched his signature collection in early February, many other health workers are posting comments in support of his petition.
One of them is Carlos Verdeguer, also an intensive care doctor, who claims that, when he had his first child, he gave up public health to be able to reconcile.
“I support Tamara’s request because it is unnecessary and even dangerous to maintain 24-hour shifts, within which the lives of your patients may depend on the decisions you make in moments of extreme fatigue,” he added.
José Ignacio Artero has also signed the petition, which assures that it is “a risk” to be treated by a doctor who has not rested properly for 24 hours, and warns that, for the professional, this type of guard “is linked to sleep disorders and anxious and depressive symptoms”.
Another health worker who has joined the cause is Rebeca, an emergency doctor in Seville. “On 24-hour shifts I have 30 minutes for breakfast, an hour for lunch and no time for dinner. After 22 hours of work, my mental capacity is reduced, I am tired and I am slower. I have to review everything, because Mental exhaustion means that I often don’t trust my judgment,” he described.
