Wednesday, October 2, 2024, 00:53
Bilbao is these days the capital of family medicine. More than 5,000 specialists are going to meet on the occasion of the congress of the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen) to share experiences and professional practices, learn about the latest advances in research at this level of care and “recover the desire to do the medicine that we like”, as pointed out by Txema Calleja, president of the organizing committee of this event and a family doctor at the Aranbizkarra I health center in Vitoria.
– This week more than 5,000 family doctors meet in Bilbao. I imagine that in the groups that form during the congress they will talk about the situation at this level of care.
– It is very similar in all communities. We share the lack of professionals, due to the lack of foresight that was made when training new doctors to make up for the losses caused by retirements.
– Sometimes it seems that family medicine is the ugly duckling of the healthcare branches.
– We have a certain bad reputation and that is another of our problems. When it comes to choosing places, MIR family medicine is always in the queue and there are vacancies, so it seems that few people want to be a family doctor. But the reality is that it is the specialty that has the greatest offer and that it is the one that most young doctors choose.
– Lack of doctors, bad reputation… Any other problems?
– Work overload. Something that is largely due to the fact that our consultations are very bureaucratized. In our daily lives we have many tasks that have to do with reports and other types of issues that do not provide special value from a health point of view and take away our time from dedicating it to the patient who needs it. A good part of our day consists of taking sick leave reports for minor processes, when in other countries they allow the worker to be absent for two days thanks to a sworn declaration.
– What diagnosis do you make of the situation of Primary Care in Osakidetza?
– In Euskadi, compared to the rest of the State, the situation is not so bad. But it is true that the quality standards in the Basque Country have always been very high and the patient sees a difference. He understands that the service offered is worse than it was years ago and expresses it.
– What improvements do family doctors demand?
– In addition to reducing bureaucracy, doctors ask for greater resolution capacity. We want and can solve more health problems. For this we need to have more means and more accessible diagnostic methods such as having an ultrasound in the consultation or using techniques that we do not currently offer to patients such as infiltrations. But for all this it would be necessary to increase the budget allocation dedicated to Primary Care.
– Tell me more about the ultrasound?
– It is a test that can be done quickly in a health center and would allow us to quickly examine issues that seem suspicious to us. This way we would see in advance if it is serious or not. If there is no danger, we would reassure the patient soon, because they would not have to spend weeks or months on a waiting list to have the test performed and find out the diagnosis. And if it is something to monitor, we could evaluate it beforehand to take measures to begin correcting this health problem.
– The Health Minister said this summer that most health problems can be solved in Primary Care.
– That’s how it is. Studies say that good Primary Care solves 75 to 80% of health problems.
– And is the current one good?
– For it to be good, you must have the time and means necessary to care for the patient. Sometimes the care overload eats you up. The rush comes and you do your work faster and the same with worse quality. Although we always try to do things the best we can. Osakidetza Primary Care is good but could be improved. That is what we want to achieve and that is why we point out the aspects that we believe can be corrected. One of them is to make the specialty more attractive from the University to make it known and so that there is not such a lack of doctors.
– The counselor also commented that in outpatient clinics there should not be waiting lists and acute cases should be attended to in no more than 24 hours. Is it possible?
– I find it very complicated, especially due to the lack of teammates. Yes, it is a good objective, the thing is that it is a little difficult to achieve, from my point of view, if the things we have mentioned before are not improved. The bureaucratization and the lack of coverage of places above all. We can’t do more with the same doctors.