The internalization of the telephone 061 Health Response was one of the promises with which the Government of Pere Aragones He tried to unravel the approval of the 2022 Budgets. First he resorted to it to persuade the CUP and, after the coupero veto, he kept the promise intact with the ‘comuns’, who certified their support for the project and saved the accounts. However, more than six months after the figures entered into force, the integration of the service has not yet taken place, the staff knows nothing about these procedures and the Executive foresees a new tender for when the current one expires, the July 5th.
For the new contract, the Department of Health has reserved until 95.5 million euros for four more possible years of outsourced management (two as ordinary and another two as extendable), according to the public contracting forecasts of the Generalitat analyzed by EL PERIÓDICO.
Sources of Health consulted by this newspaper assure that the objective of the new tender “bridge” is made “with the objective that the office for the study of non-health telephone assistance -created on April 12- can evaluate the requirements of internalization” and that this future agreement “will take into account the exit agreements of the 061 strike and the salary improvements of 112”, so they affirm that the desire for integration remains intact.
At the moment, the 061 telephone lines, through which these days go from covid consultations to traffic accidents, are operated Railway. This company assumed the service on October 1, 2018 for two years and, with it, a millionaire contract of 17.6 million euros that has been extended and expanded, especially after the outbreak of the pandemic. The Medical Emergency System (SEM) signed with Ferrovial “the demand care and management service assigned to the coordinating center of the public company” for emergencies, the Central de Coordinació Sanitària (CECOS) which, to date, with the incorporated modifications, already reaches 44 million euros without VAT as recorded in the public registry of contracts.
The current tender expires on July 5, the internalization has not started and the Government has to resort to some emergency formula to prevent the 061 telephones from stopping working. Well, this new contract of 95.5 million for the next few years, although it is planned in open competition, has not yet been awarded.
The new tender is much more lucrative: between 2018 and 2022 it was paid 11 million euros per year and now it is expected to pay 23 million
The workforce is restless, overwhelmed by the increase in work that has brought the reactivation of social life that coexists with the recent uptick in covid infections. That is why this Wednesday the works council plans to request explanations in writing from the Department of Health on the state of internalization and, unless the answer is convincing and explicit, they will appear on Monday at the Labor Department to denounce Salut for violating the right to strike. Well, one of the commitments made by the Ministry on December 2, 2021 -in parallel with the budgets- to call off the ongoing strikes was the internalization of the service.
The pact, truncated?
The solemnized agreement between the Government and the ‘commons‘ literally says that “taking into account the forthcoming end of the contract currently in force for the 061 Salud Responde service and its close relationship with the right to health, the Executiu expresses its willingness, once the contract currently in force ends, to start managing directly, through Department of Healthat least those services currently provided by 061 Salut Respon that are qualified as being of health interest for the public”. Worded very similarly to that of the minutes signed in the mediation in the Department of Labor with the striking unions.
Until now, the tender for the 061 service has usually been carried out in terms of two years, with the possibility of extension. The current contract began on October 1, 2018 for an amount of 17.6 million euros for two years, but the outbreak of the covid-19 forced a first modification to extend the agreement, from March 14 to May 12, 2020, for a sum of 4.2 million euros more (which represents 23.88% of the initial amount of the contract). In said extension a complement was contemplated for the improvement of salary conditions and this ended up being extended until July 31 of that same year.
Already in September 2020, the service is extended for another two years (from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021) for another 17.6 million, the same amount as two years ago. But in the middle, in January 2021, it undergoes other changes: at first 1.6 million euros are set and then another million euros.
Who will get the contract?
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More than two years later, and when there are a few days left to finish, the SEM contemplates in its bidding forecasts for this 2022 up to 95.5 million euros to award the attention and management service. A much higher tender due to the conditions agreed by the strike and the covid, while between 2018 and 2022 the year of service it was paid at 11 million euros a year and now it is expected to pay 23 million if it ends up running in four years, something that sources from the Ministry rule out because they trust in internalizing the service before.
The ‘bridge contract’ will be a procedure open to the concurrence of several companies, although Ferrovial starts out as the favorite due to its management capacity compared to its potential competitors and due to the experience accumulated in these tasks in recent years, according to industry sources. The North Groupwhich until 2021 managed the 112 line, entered bankruptcy proceedings and firms such as Konecta, Attentive either Ilunionheavyweights of the ‘call center’, lack previous experience in this service.