Torrevieja needs 5 paediatricians and 16 doctors to adequately meet the patient/doctor ratio, it was revealed this week. Doctors have demanded that Health Minister Ana Barceló orders that the necessary staff be hired urgently.
The warning came from the medical union when it warned that Torrevieja health department urgently needs to hire 16 GPs and 5 more paediatricians in order that doctor-to-patient ratios are within the limits as set out by the Valencian Community – that is, 1500 patients per GP and 900 per paediatrician.
General secretary of the Community Medical Union, Víctor Pedrera, has written directly to the minister Ana Barceló where he explains that he must “inform her of the serious deficiencies in the staffing of both family doctors and primary care paediatricians.”
Pedrera claims that the Health Ministry “must hire immediately” 16 family doctors and 5 paediatricians so that professionals and patients “do not see their working conditions and their rights diminished, the need to replace all absences must also be taken into account in order not to worsen the care overload”.
A report which emerged over the last few days includes some striking figures: of the 74 GPs currently working in local health centres, 71 have over 1500 patients. For example, in Orihuela Costa health centre, 8 out of 9 staff are overloaded and of these, 7 have more than 1900 patients on their registers. In La Loma, one of the busiest health centres, 13 of the 14 GPs have over 1500 patients each and in the same health centre, all four paediatricians exceed the 900 patient quota.
The data provided by the Ministry of Health differs from that provided by the Medical Union with the Ministry claiming that there are 85 GPs in place. Sources at the regional health administration admit that there is a shortage for doctors and pediatricians, but that the objective is that the ratio is lowered to the average of the Valencian Community.