There is a controversy developing concerning the management of hospital & medical centre workers on the 13th of this month during the Cold Drop (DANA) in Málaga.

The board of staff for the Área de Gestión Sanitaria Este-Axarquía has complained that medical personnel were “pressured into travelling to work” [despite general warnings for people to stay at home] by threatening economic retribuition and disciplinary measures, if they failed to do so.

Furthermore, they pointed out that patients and relatives took considerable risks by turning up for scheduled appointments under threats of losing their place on the waiting lists.

For the above reasons, they are calling for the Public-Health Manager for Málaga, Miguel Moreno, to be given a reprimand and that he should issue a public apology.

However, the Junta de Andalucía has rejected these claims; in the case of the medical staff, this was done to organise the coverage of appointments for patients who did turn up, and in the case of patients being ejected from a waiting list, the Junta says that it was “completely false.”

In a document signed by workers-union representatives for the SMA, CCOO, UGT, SATSE and CSIF, which was sent to the health authorities, they consider that those responsible for the Public-Health Department acted “in a manner totally contrary to the regulations on prevention of occupational risks.”

On the day before the 13th, when the Weather Warning was published, a memorandum was sent out by the General Secretary of all public adminstrations calling for “common sense and the need not to expose public workers to unnecesarry risk.” The following morning section heads were asked for the names & posts of those who had not turned up for work.

The Junta de Andalucía, states, “given that health services are essential, and in order to be able to foresee and guarantee that they continue to be provided with the maximum guarantee for patients, those responsible for the centres needed to know which workers had attended or were going to be absent from work on Thursday 14th in order to organize both the consultations and the surgical interventions, extractions, vaccines, emergency services, and all those actions that are provided in health centers.”

(News: Malaga, Andalucia)

Keywords, Red Alert, Weather Warning, Junta De Andalucia, Medical Staff, Coerced, Workers Unions, Patients, Appointments

Tags: news, andalucia, malaga, red alert, weather warning, junta de andalucia, medical staff, coerced, workers unions, patients, appointments, hospitals