“No one remembers us”

They charge half that their colleagues in public health and the employer refuses to sign “a decent collective agreement” they complain.

Around 70,000 professionals work in working conditions “very precarious” in Madrid private healthcare. They feel neglected. “No one remembers us”complains Mónica López Sanz, president of the hospital’s works council Viamed Saint Helenaat a time when, due to conflicts in the public, concern for health is back in the front line. Monica is TCAE (Nursing Auxiliary Care Technician) and has been working in the sector for 25 years. She feels so “qualified” like a partner “to work at the Gregorio Marañón” but, he regrets, if it is about charging, the salary of a professional of his category it can be half in private. Workers complain that while the sector has multiplied its business profits Regarding the pre-pandemic stage, the employer refuses to sign a “dignified” agreement to improve those conditions.

the pandemic or the increase in waiting lists for surgeries, diagnostic tests and specialized consultations, has led to the “care collapse” in the public health that everyone is talking about these days. But, in conversation with THE SPANISH NEWSPAPERthe person in charge of Private healthcare in CCOO from Madrid, Samuel Mosquera, regrets that this precariousness also affects private healthcare. He criticizes the “greed” of the bosses health companies and denounces wages and working conditions that, in general, “have more to do with unskilled jobs, despite the risks and the sensitivity of his work“. Meanwhile, he assures, the income statements of these companies “grow substantially”.

With data from CCOO Health Madridthe majority union in regional private healthcare, Madrid pays 80 million to refer patients from public to private healthcare and, in 2021, had increased this transfer of funds by 30% compared to 2020. The region is at the forefront of private health insurance in Spain: four out of 10 citizens have hired one. According to a report recently presented by the national employers’ association – the Alianza de la Sanidad Privada Española (ASPE)- a total of 271 private hospitals (63%) in Spain have some agreement with public health and Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia are the communities that They have a greater number of hospitals and private beds.

The expansion of large groups

Samuel Mosquera indicates to this newspaper that large groups expand by building or acquiring new hospitals, and buy medical equipment that represent millionaire investments. The four most powerful (Quirón, Vithas, HLA and HM Hospitales) billed close to 6,000 million euros in 2021, 54% more than in 2016. In Madrid, more than 60% of private hospitals have agreements with public health, and the PP government has privatized the management of four public hospitals (King Juan Carlos of MostolesInfanta Elena de Valdemoro, Hospital de Villalba and Hospital de Torrejón de Ardoz) and semi-privatized the non-health services of another six, details the union representative.

CCOO Health Madrid denounces that the professional/patient ratios are one third less in hospitalization, and half the staff in ICUs than in public health.

However, regrets Samuel Mosquera, his professionals they do not have equal salaries and they charge almost 50% less in private centers, the professional/patient ratios are one third less in hospitalization, and half the staff in ICUs than in public health. In addition, it draws attention to a fact: Many of the patients received by the private sector come from the public through these concerts (diagnostic tests, mammograms…). “We are so closely related that it is difficult to separate them. Many of our hospitals treat patients from the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS),” he explains.

“We know perfectly well that in Madrid medical insurance has quadrupled and all of this is beneficial for insurers and companies that invest in technological renovations, expansions, new hospitals…”, he abounds. As an example, she cites that, this very week, HM Hospitales has just launched its eighth hospital center in the Community of Madrid (HM Rivas University Hospital). Despite these gains in the sector, the union official insists: private health workers have “very precarious conditions”. Wardens, TCAES…different professional categories have salaries of just over 1,000 euros that double in the same categories in the case of publicassures.

For this reason, warns Samuel Mosquera, the future “appears black” if those conditions do not improve and, what is worse, private health will also begin to experience the “mass flight” of professionals, not only to public health but also the youngest they will flee to work outside of Spain. In addition, he emphasizes, they have to live “the stigma” that they belong to that sector that generates “so many benefits” and feel relegated “always to the background, despite the dire conditions we have”.

A very old convention

“The future of private healthcare in the region for its 70,000 professionals And if not, we have a black future, because it is not only about technological advances and having the best hospitals in Europe. All of that is marketing,” complains Mosquera, who explains that the Madrid employers block, for almost a year, the improvement of the conditions of its personnel that incorporates the new collective agreement. A “very old” agreement indicates for its part Monica Lopez Sanzpresident of the company committee of the Hospital Viamed Santa Elena, a lifetime working in the private sector.

I highly value public health. We are complementary, but no one remembers us,” says Mónica López

López Sanz goes back to 25 years ago, when she started. So, she relates, Madrid’s private healthcare was made up of small catholic hospitals. Today, most of those centers have been bought by large hospital groups and the situation “has been getting worse” gradually for the workers. The coronavirus, he adds, has only made things more complicated and, just like in publichealth workers complain of being overwhelmed precisely by those thousands of patients who either have private insurance, or they arrive derived from public hospitals for the concerts.

The TCAE of Viamed Santa Elena It affects: her claims are not only economic -but also, because she explains that, after 25 years of seniority, her salary barely reaches 1,500 euros, compared to the 2,200 that a colleague of the same category could receive in a public hospital- but also go through aspects like being able to have days of your own affairs, be able to reconcile… “I highly value public health. What’s more, we are complementary, but no one remembers us. I am as professional as a TCAE from Marañón, I feel as capable as she is“, he points out. “Let everyone know that private professionals are as professional as public ones, but we are in worse conditions,” he complains again.

CCOO hopes to reach an agreement with the Madrid employers’ association of the sector “as soon as possible” to, in 2023, update the salary tables

Your partner, Samuel Mosqueraexplains, by way of conclusion, that he hopes to reach an agreement with the Madrid employers’ association in the sector “as soon as possible” to, in 2023, update the salary tables. The negotiating table of the agreement hospitalization health establishmentshealthcare, consultations and laboratories of clinical analysis of the Community of Madrid was established on March 1, 2021 precisely to correct the conditions of that “obsolete” agreement. From the Association of Hospitalization Centers and Companies Madrid Private (ACHPM), consulted by this newspaper, have preferred not to make statements precisely, they argue, for being in a negotiation process.