Doctors and nurses at the emergency department of Hospital Santa Ana have come out in revolt over the “scarcity of personnel.”

They have warned the hospital management that the department is overwhelmed and that they cannot be held responsible for the “lack of attention towards patients.”

A total of 68 staff members for Urgencias have put their name to a document after concluding that they had to make known the situation, instead of complaining amongst themselves at work or at home to their partners.

According to the medical union, this scale of rebellion is unheard of at this area hospital, which includes all kinds of personnel: doctors, nurses, auxiliary nurses and administrative staff.

But it is not only a lack of personnel that has tipped the balance, but also a lack in material and space.

There aren’t enough nurses to attend to patients who are being treated in special armchairs; i.e. to check on their condition, because the existing nurses are all busy at the reception area of the Emergency Department.

The nurses complain that they even have to leave high-risk patients under monitoring unattended because of duties elsewhere – they simply can’t be in two places at the same time.

Normal standards require one doctor, one nurse and two auxiliary nurses per 4,000 emergencies attended yet Motril hospital has to deal with an average of 65,000 emergency cases per year without this ratio of medical staff.

“The medical-personnel deficit is a structural problem that has grown to proportions where it is no longer sustainable,” said the union representative.

But staff numbers instead of increasing are actually diminishing: in three years the hospital has lost an anaesthetist, a radiologist and two surgeons.

And if things weren’t bad enough already, the Junta de Andalucia intends to bring out a new system which will entail a greater workload for existing staff because the system is being launched without the envisaged extra material and staff.

So far the only comment made by the hospital management is that the new system has still not been implanted and that extra staff will be hired for the Christmas holiday period.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)