Madrid Family Doctors & Pediatricians Resume Indefinite Strike

On Thursday, Madrid family doctors and pediatricians resumed the strike initiated in November 2022 due to the failure of negotiations seeking to improve their salaries and relieve the workload of physicians covering the afternoon shifts, to which more patients come.

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Pending a new negotiation round with Madrid Community Health Counselor, these health workers suspended the strike a month ago. The parts, however, reached no agreement at the new meeting, which ended on Wednesday after two and a half hours of negotiations.

"The meeting went badly. It is the seventh one we have held since we started the strike, and no one who could make decisions involving expenditure increase participated,” Madrid Association of Physicians and Higher Graduates (AMYTS) spokesperson Angela Hernandez complained.

In Madrid, healthcare providers treat about 70 patients daily, despite international organizations recommending that each doctor treat 20 or 25 people a day. As a result, over 92 percent of family doctors in this territory suffer emotional exhaustion.

In other Spanish cities, emergency hospitals are likely to collapse soon due to the resurgence of respiratory infections after the end-of-year holidays. Despite this, the Madrid Community alleges that the doctors are raising politically-motivated demands.

“Our strike committee will assign 6 out of 12 seats to family doctors and pediatricians from other medical organizations to demonstrate that the problems we pose affect the entire medical community,” AMYTS announced.

“Although the strike we called for is indefinite, it will not entail a total suspension of health services since at least one doctor and one pediatrician will remain in the health centers to care for the population during it,” it added.