The Ministry of Health has convened the autonomous communities for an extraordinary meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS). The primary objective is to specifically analyze the reform of the Framework Statute and the situation arising from the doctors' strike, who reject the draft bill approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.
The meeting, initially scheduled for June 5, will be held in a hybrid format (in-person and remote). It will serve to inform regional officials about the status of discussions with the strike committee, which continues to be without an agreement with the department led by Mónica García.
The conflict remains open after medical organizations maintained their rejection of the legislative text. The strike organizers have announced further mobilizations, including a national protest in front of the Ministry of Health headquarters on June 15, coinciding with a new strike week planned between June 15 and 19.
In addition to negotiating with representatives of the physicians, the agenda includes several items related to the working conditions of medical staff. Among these are the limitation of on-call shifts, the implementation of a standard 35-hour work week, and improvements in remuneration associated with on-call duties.
The draft bill promoted by the Ministry of Health contemplates a reduction in 24-hour on-call shifts, generally establishing a maximum of 17 continuous on-call hours, as well as a limit of 45 hours per week when combining ordinary activity and continuous care.
The regional health ministers will also debate the creation of specific negotiation spaces for doctors, the progressive reduction of the maximum working day, the professional classification of healthcare personnel, and mechanisms to enhance physicians' participation in the organizational decisions of the healthcare system.
Furthermore, the Ministry proposes establishing working groups to review labor organization in healthcare centers and advance measures to reduce the bureaucratic burden on professionals.
The approval of the draft bill has been met with strong criticism from Amyts, the majority union among Madrid's doctors. Its general secretary, Ángela Hernández, believes the government's decision reinforces the need to continue protests and denounces that the text was drafted without incorporating the medical collective's main demands.
The organization maintains that the new regulation perpetuates differences in working conditions for physicians compared to other healthcare professionals. The union has called for massive participation in the protest planned for June 15 and has recalled that specialists from numerous Madrid hospitals have also announced strikes for extraordinary activities performed outside their regular hours.
From the Community of Madrid, the Minister of Health, Fátima Matute, has expressed her rejection of the extraordinary meeting's approach, accusing the Ministry of transferring responsibilities to the autonomies that, in her view, belong to the central government.
The Madrid health official believes that any modification of the Framework Statute should be preceded by a technical, legal, and budgetary analysis agreed upon by several ministerial departments, particularly Finance, Public Administration, and Labor, and be accompanied by specific funding.
Matute has insisted that a reform of this magnitude requires the support of healthcare professionals and warned that the existing discontent among doctors and physicians hinders any progress if a consensus with the sector is not reached beforehand.
Regarding financing, the minister has called on the central Executive for more details on the financial resources it claims to have transferred to the autonomous communities to strengthen public healthcare. According to her statement, the Community of Madrid does not identify the amounts announced by the Government in its accounts and considers some of the recently approved allocations for mental health and suicide prevention programs insufficient.
