The District Council of Villarrubia de Córdoba has called for a new protest action due to the “precarious and unsustainable” situation in which health care is found at the primary level of care for the sick, so that the neighborhood rally will take place this Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the entrance to the peripheral neighborhood with the A-431 road closure, as well as the following Fridays.
As detailed by the council, this measure has been agreed upon due to “the absence of responses to solve the problem of medical personnel and the new health center by the Health Delegation after the protest actions developed”, such as the protest campaign. through complaint forms, the concentration held on June 14 at the door of the health center and the concentration that took place on July 6 at the door of the Andalusian Government Delegation.
Thus, they have warned that “the health center is in the same precarious situation as it was a little more than two years ago when the president of the Junta de Andalucía, at that time a candidate for the Presidency, announced at a rally that he was working for the drafting the project for the new health center for Villarrubia.”
“In turn, the territorial Health delegate, in 2021, promised the construction of a new center according to the needs of this District at a long table with representation of staff from her Delegation, the City Council and the Council, but, to “Today, the budget allocation for this purpose has not taken place, nor has the Territorial Health Delegation carried out the drafting of the corresponding project, despite already having the land donated by the City Council,” they have pointed out.
Furthermore, they have stated that “as the residents of the District of Villarrubia know very well, because they suffer from it, the problems of medical and nursing personnel have been added to the situation of the health center”, so that “the center Villarrubia has had four doctors, a pediatrician and four nurses.”
“Since a few months ago, their situation and the care for the sick have worsened considerably, because there have been three retirements and one transfer and the vacancies generated have not been filled in their entirety,” they noted, adding that “today the “The sick are cared for by two doctors and a few hours of reinforcement from the Encinarejo doctor.”
The consequences and demands
As they have stated, “the consequences or problems due to the reduction in staff are the following: the center has been closed during the afternoons and on Saturdays; Patients may find their agendas closed when they need an appointment; Half of the users of the Villarrubia center do not have a primary care doctor of reference and every time they have to go to the center they do not know if they will be able to get an appointment and, furthermore, they do not know who is going to care for them.”
Likewise, they have detailed that “the appointments are given, each time, later, that is, after ten or 15 days; In the morning, queues of patients form waiting for an appointment; The Encinarejo center has also been affected because its owner comes to Villarrubia to reinforce and attend to emergencies for a few hours, and the medical and nursing staff have seen the number of patients they have to care for increase considerably.”
Thus, they have highlighted that “all of the above has the residents of Villarrubia outraged” and, therefore, the District Council has requested the delegate of the Andalusian Government, Adolfo Molina, and the territorial delegate of Health, María Jesús Botella, again , a meeting to “address the problem presented and also express the situation of collapse that has occurred during the summer when the population in the District has increased considerably.”
Until now, the Health delegate has responded by offering an appointment for next Monday, which they will attend “demanding that the defense of public health be a priority for the Government of the Board, since it is a right of citizens, that promises are fulfilled, that a budget is contemplated to begin the drafting of the project for the new Health center in 2024, as it already has land on which to execute it, that all vacancies generated among medical personnel are filled, that the staff is completed of nursing, that the pediatrician attends to the needs of its reference centers, that all the agendas for appointments are open and that the queues end and that the health center is open again during the afternoons and on Saturdays.