The doctors at the Motril-Este medical centre have made an official apology for the delay that many patients had to endure before being attended to, at the beginning of the month.

They also pointed out that although the delay was not of their making, they wished that patients didn’t have to wait six or seven days to get an appointment. It was only a couple of years ago, they claim, that most patients could get an appointment on the same day, or by the next day at the latest.
They say that they don’t want more money nor have shorter working hours; they just want to work in adequate conditions, which is not something that the summer population boost permits.

And that’s the problem you see; vacations not being covered. There are ten doctors and three paediatricians at the centre, but during the summer months it drops down to seven, and on some days only five doctors being available because no substitutes are being provided for staff on holiday. Consequently, each doctor has around 1,500 patients assigned to them, which works out at around 40 a day, which in turn is well above the recommended average.
One doctor had 28 appoints, 22 of which were patients of another doctor that was away on holiday.

“I feel that I am doing the job of a substitute doctor and am not therefore being able to attend my own patients adequately,” he explained.

The area health authorities say that there are not substitute doctors to be had. A spokesman also pointed out that around mid August four doctors were going to take their holidays, leaving the centre operating at 40% below its capacity – regulations state that the maximum is 30% and that therefore one of the doctors should not be taking his holidays.