“You have a lot of fear and anxiety”

Fear, anguish, stress, anxiety…Always on the phone. In case it sounds a day before, to work the next. Unable to make plans. Neither professionally nor family-wise. Dr. Ines Garcia Rosaemergency room doctor Queen Sofia Hospital of Murciahas been chaining for seven years temporary contract. The longest he has had so far, one year. The rest, for months. Three, six… And so on. She is the photo, and the storyfrom one of those 67,000 professionals to whom the Government wants to stabilize to finish with the precariousness that crushes some toilets that, moreover, with a pandemic in the middle, they have spent years. “What would a fixed contract be for me? Almost a dream. A gift. And above all, deserved for the effort we have made to get here, “confesses the doctor when she recounts her work odyssey.

The Minister council approved last Tuesday the Royal Decree-law by which Law 55/2003 of the Framework Statute of Statutory Personnel of Health Services is reformed and the types of temporary contract are established in the National system of health and the specific reasons for which they can be carried out. The president had already announced Pedro Sanchez. The idea is to end precariousness of Spanish toilets, a group where the temporary rate is especially high. In practice, it will mean carrying out a stabilization process for the more than 67,000 who are in a temporary situation.

Of temporality, of anguish, of not knowing where to go -without being able to make plans, neither personally nor at work-, of stress, of uncertainty… Of all that, and more, he knows well Dr. Garcia Rosaemergency physician at murcian hospital, of 36 years. Inés did the specialty of Family medicine. “I was lucky that it was in the hospital. I did my four years of training here. It is a fantastic center to trainbecause it has great professionals, so it was also lucky to stay in the Emergency Department”, he explains. From then on, job instability marked his path.

“Yes, I have seen myself with stones on the road and with obstacles in terms of the contracts that have been offered to me since the job bank. Seven years ago I finished the specialty and only one had a contract, the rest of three months, at most six”. And always at the last minute, he remarks. “If my contract ends on May 31, on the 30th they are calling me to offer me another . That generates stress, anxiety and fear because you don’t know what will happen to your life. It is a tremendous family and professional instability,” says the doctor, who is also a spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (SEMES).

Precarious work It especially hits the Emergency services. With data, tremendous, provided by SEMES, the temporary rates in some autonomous communities skyrocket. They can touch 95%, indicate from the scientific society. For example in Madrid, the temporary nature of the contracts for emergency physicians is 85%; in Valencian Community70%; in Cantabria, 60%, the same as in Catalonia; in Extremadura or the Canary Islands, 50%; in Castile-La Mancha30%, something similar in Andalusia; in Galicia, 20% or in La Rioja, with a much better situation, 10%. There are emergency physicians who will retire without ever signing a permanent contract. They are over 60 years old and are on temporary contracts.

“Fear, so much fear”

Dr. García speaks well of that concern. From the anxiety of not being able to plan anything. Like buying a house. Or a car. “A lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear”, repeat over and over again. It also highlights the difficulty of reconciling. Mother of a little girl, she tells something curious. “My contract ended on December 31, 2020 and my daughter was born in April 2021. With which I saw that she was going to have four months without a contract and was going to give birth. I linked my motherhood with the possibility that they would call me. Fortunately, they called me at the end of december, One day to another. I was able to sign, give birth and continue with maternity and breastfeeding leave as the law says, but with the fear that I am going to have a child and I am on the street, without a job“.

A constant insecurity, he admits. “After seven years as an assistant in an Emergency Department, you are wondering whether to go to another community to improve. Well, maybe yes. This year, of my residents, none have chosen or had the opportunity to stay in this door of ER because they have been offered better contracts in neighboring communities. For example, in the Valencian Community, in Andalusia…Residents that we have trained here, who have fought for them to acquire the skills that the Ministry requires of them and to be up-to-date, who are from this region and we have lost them because perhaps in that community They have been offered a two-year contract. It’s a shame“.

Whose fault is it?. Inés García points out, in this case, to the Murcian Health Service. “That with the lack of doctors that there are and the tremendous job insecurity we are in, they don’t offer contract improvements… But, come on, what is transferable to all communities, for example, Madrid. Soon we will have a huge number of professionals who are going to retire. What is going to happen? Are we going to continue signing three-month contracts or are they going to offer us an indefinite one as we deserve? I think it’s time to sit down and plant ourselves. To say: ‘So far,’ “says the ER.

The emergencies, saturated

In Spainwhere 60% of income performed through hospital emergenciesabout 20,000 professionals (doctors, nurses and technicians) work in Urgencies and emergencies. Without regulated or homogeneous training, they have been demanding specialization for years. For now, without success. Dr. Inés García talks about a service that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. Where the door is always open and, every time, with more entrance queue. Where do many of those who are not attended bounce? in a dying Primary Care.

A service where, since Easter, he says, have noticed a 25% increase in daily attention. “The guards are hell. We are saturated “, he describes. And he returns to the same:” You have bad guards, temporary contracts … You consider leaving. Even outside of Spain. There are colleagues who are thinking about it, “says the ER. Does she consider it? Her contract, she says, ends in October and she does contemplate it.”I don’t know if to another hospital, it will be the same. But maybe dedicate myself to Primary Care, from 8 to 3. And leave the ER aside. A shame because I love it and I have trained for it. But the stress we have right now is very great. We have never lived as much as in recent months.”

Related news

doTo what do they attribute this saturation in the Emergency Department??. “People blame it on covid – Spain is experiencing its seventh wave in the middle of summer – but covid has brought the disease itself and, then, many problems or consequences that we are seeing. It also influences that we have a high percentage of the elderly population. On wards, 70% of the patients we see are over 75 years old and many comorbidities. They are very complex patients, with many drugs, who are admitted and readmitted a week. I would have to open a doorbut i think there is no money– and create hospitals and chronic units”.

In all that story of a day to day “full of stones”, Dr. García values ​​the Government’s initiative to give stability to the toilets. “It is very positive, especially for those of us who have been chaining temporary contracts for almost ten years. Also with a view to recognizing our training and daily effort. We are always reading, researching…”. Says who does not know what a fixed contract is. “For me it is almost a dream. A gift. And, above all, something deserved”settles the doctor.