The Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Government of Andalusia, Rocío Hernández, stressed today, at the closing of the IV Rural Health Conference held in Priego, that the mission of the Ministry is to “offer adequate health care under conditions of equity and quality to all Andalusians wherever they live.”
For this reason, he has insisted that it is “necessary to strengthen Primary Care to guarantee accessibility to the health system for the entire population.”
Hernández, who has been accompanied by all the territorial delegates of Health and Consumer Affairs of Andalusia and the mayor Priego, Juan Ramón Valdivia, explained that the geographical dispersion of Andalusia and the aging of the population represent a “real challenge” for the health system. In fact, 17.4% of the Andalusian population resides in areas classified as rural, which occupy 64.7% of the Andalusian territory. In total, Andalusia has 530 municipalities classified as rural.
To achieve this challenge, “we are implementing organizational measures for effective and efficient management, which includes the expansion of telemedicine, among other measures; We are developing the Care Strategy, which brings the care that chronic patients need closer to their closest environments; and we are immersed in a transformation of the health model, focusing on prevention and health promotion,” he added.
However, the head of Health and Consumer Affairs has reiterated that the main difficulty is the shortage of health professionals, which affects the entire National Health System and which is especially acute among family doctors, but also among other specialties in the field. hospital in areas with difficult coverage. Andalusia has recognized 90 basic health areas that meet the objective criteria to consider positions that are difficult to cover and these are mainly found in rural areas.
Despite these limitations, the Andalusian Health Service has more than 5,000 primary care doctors who, in its more than 1,500 primary care centers distributed throughout Andalusia, attend to the needs of its more than 8 patients daily. 5 million users.
The counselor has stressed that “innovative formulas” are being studied to attract professionals to areas that are difficult to reach, with incentives that include access to continued training, recognition, professional development and salary improvements associated with the professional career complement or improvements in voluntary mobility and personnel selection processes, as well as in research, in addition to the possibility of prolonging active service.
The IV Rural Health Conference has also served to evaluate the incentive measures aimed at professionals implemented, such as the benefits in the ranking of selective processes for temporary and permanent employment, as well as in transfer competitions; career benefits or incentives for temporary hiring through more stable appointments, as well as other measures that facilitate the provision of care in rural areas, such as telemedicine.
Attacks on health professionals
Rocío Hernández, who has shown her solidarity with the Primary Care doctor at the La Merced health center in Cádiz, the latest victim of an attack in Andalusia, last Thursday, has indicated that they are studying the differentiating elements of attacks in rural areas. with respect to other more in-demand areas and analyzing the necessary measures “to protect you, so that you can carry out your work and take care of everyone without posing a risk to yourself.”
The conclusions will be taken to the Observatory of Aggressions against Professionals of the Public Health System and will be assessed in light of the sanctioning regime that is being prepared and that will be included in the future Comprehensive Health Law of Andalusia.
The counselor concluded her intervention with a defense of rural health, which she said “is imbued with the essence of Primary Care: proximity, quality and longitudinality.” For this reason, he has shown his conviction that “working in rural areas has to be appealing to new generations of healthcare workers who want to work in environments where traditionally treatment has been closer, and, perhaps, more humane, and where many of the characteristic values of our profession acquire their authentic dimension.” “With these pillars we are laying the foundation for more efficient, accessible and humanized rural health care,” he added.