PP and Vox have approved in Parliament the decree that will exempt health workers who work on the islands from knowing their own language
The Balearic Cultural Work has already announced that it will promote, together with PSOE and Sumar, the filing of an unconstitutionality appeal
The Catalan is no longer a requirement for doctors who want to work in the Balearic Islands. PP and Vox have validated in Parliament the decree law that suppress your demand after the Government approved just a few weeks ago a modification of law 4/2016 of language training measures in which the requirements for knowledge of the Catalan language in the Health Service are regulated. The Government justifies this decision because “along with the structural lack of health professionals affect and put at risk the basic and quality provision of the public health service.” Balearic Cultural Work has already announced that it will promote, together with PSOE and Sumar, the filing of an unconstitutionality appeal: “We will confront all attacks against the Catalan language and the linguistic rights of the citizens of the Balearic Islands.”
“In this way, the selection processes and provision of personnel with health functions will allow access to those best qualified professionals, without the lack of official accreditation of a certain level of Catalan become a deterrent at the time of access,” they say from the ministry. This measure was included both in the PP government program and in the agreement with Vox.
The Minister of Health, Manuela Garciahas defended that the approved measures seek “ensure fair access” to the health care of citizens and meet the demand “appropriately” because the Balearic Islands need to attract and retain health workers: “The user is the central element”.
Both PP and Vox have celebrated the elimination of the requirement of Catalan ―they have focused on the fact that the decree includes other measures such as an improvement in salary supplements for some positions that are difficult to fill or free 0-3 years―, although the ‘popular’ have focused their criticism on remembering that the Government of Francina Armengol It has already decided to exempt healthcare workers from the Catalan requirement just a few months before the regional elections. For its part, the extreme right has assured that it is a requirement “discriminatory” for health workers in other regions: “Citizens have suffered a serious punishment due to the imposition of Catalan, but the time of the linguistic impositions It’s over”.
The PSIB deputy Amanda Fernandez has denounced that it is a “attack on our language” which aims “belittle and corner” into Catalan in the Balearic Islands and has reiterated that citizens have the right to speak in the language of the islands: “You take away this right and devalue health care”.
From Més per Mallorca they have also harshly criticized the Government’s decision to “please” to Vox partners. The deputy Maria Ramon has accused the PP of “violate the right” to be treated in their language and use Catalan as a “scapegoat” for the lack of health personnel: “There is no data to justify this measure”. Ramon has warned that eliminating the requirement “leaves on wet paper” the right of citizens to be served in Catalan.
The socialists and the eco-sovereignists have recalled in separate interventions that this year marks the one of each of the massive demonstration—more than 100,000 people participated— against Integrated Language Treatment (TIL) approved by the Government of José Ramón Bauzá.
One of the fundamental questions is how the right of citizens to express themselves in Catalan is going to be guaranteed if health workers do not know the language because in article 14 of the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands establishes that “they will have the right to address the Administration of the Autonomous Community in any of their two official languages and receive a response in the same language used”. This means that they can claim that, if they speak in Catalan, the response they receive is also Catalan. The Government points out that, in the event that there are difficulties between the patient and the doctor, Any other healthcare worker who understands the language can act as an intermediary.