We could have a spot of bad news for you, if you are waiting for test results back from the lab, because as of 20.00h yesterday evening, they have been on strike.
The reason for the nationwide strike is because they are demanding that the Ministerio de Sanidad officially recognises their profession as qualified and regulated healthcare professionals
The strike was called by the Sindicato Estatal de Técnicos Superiores Sanitarios (SIETeSS) in the Province of Granada and will have an affect on hospitals and centros de salud belonging to the Servicio Andaluz de Salud.
The strike will continue today and on the 1st of November will culiminate in a protest march in Madrid before concluding on the 2nd. During these strike days, operation theatres and all kinds of test will be brought to a halt.
Hospitals and centros de salud will work with minimum coverage, which will only be in the A&Es and for cancer patients.
The goal of the senior healthcare technicians is to make their presence felt in the healthcare system and to demonstrate their “essential” status.
“We handle pathology studies, detect cancers, perform biopsies, conduct CT scans, clinical analyses, and administer radiotherapy… Operating theatre waiting lists will be rescheduled – If we don’t cross-reference blood samples, the surgeons can’t operate,” explained María José Sánchez, the organising secretary of SIETeSS in Andalusia.
It remains to be seen what the real impact of the strike will be on healthcare services, but all indications are that residents of Granada who have scheduled any of these tests during this period, unless it is urgent, will have to return another day.
In the case of blood tests, for example, the union representative, who is a clinical-analysis technician at the Hospital Virgen de las Nieves, points to “storage problems” and notes that other types of samples will also have to be discarded.
(News: Granada, Andalucia)
Keywords: Lab Technicians, Strike, Hospitals, Centros de Salud, Blood Results
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