After months of hiatus due to the pandemic, the Ministry of Health has completed its Primary Care Strategic Plan. Head of Department Sarah Alba He wants to introduce it in a few weeks to major healthcare professionals, who, incidentally, is already preparing to return to normal life in a few days, provided SARS-CoV-2 allows it.

“A must for primary care centers We are re-prioritizing face-to-face care and we’re already working to implement them in April. Citizens can go to their specialist and their cardiologist, and they can do this in consultation and be treated in a hospital environment with a very good rhythm and we believe that the time has come for primary care to do it again, because what the patient wants is to let his doctor see him », the consultant advances to Diario LA RIOJA .

“For us, the time has come now, All health workers have already been vaccinated and we have a completely different scenario than a year ago, There are protective gear and diagnostic tests. It is a decision that we believe will solve some of the deficiencies that the epidemic has left on the table, “he asserts, before addressing the primary care case, without hot clothes:” Keeping the current model without touching anything and with the same resources is not sustainable. “

Alba avoids being limited to numbers due to the lack of doctors. “More than talking about numbers, we have to talk about models, because molds are being created in an instant and then reality changes and the needs of the population also change. There is no doubt that there is a huge shortage of doctors in Spain, but the discussion is not whether we lack 37 doctors. , Or 5 doctors more or less, but whether the mold design is not modified according to the needs of the population. “ The future does not look better, as the ministry’s forecast reflects that between 2020 and 2024, 78 primary school doctors will retire.

“This is brutally categorical and that is why it is so important that we have the strategic plan that we have been working on for several months to map out a new model that allows patient care and adjusting resources. First, you have to organize the service well and you also have to hire professionals, but you cannot do the second without the first, ”explains the head of the department, who has been working for a long time with the College of Physicians, about the possibility of retired doctors returning and postponing the process of the system for nearly 65 years.

incompetence

“Aside from being unsustainable, we have doubts about the efficacy of the current model,” adds Alba, who introduced that one of the axes raised by the strategic plan is the elimination of many subcategories. “The problem is that you have employees who can perform all services. If you divide a lot of activities that everyone can do, then you in turn divide the attention of the service. What we have now is the result of a legacy model, but if you have a group that only works for hours from the two to Friday in the morning, you have time slots to cover which is why the system has created subgroups to deal with those gaps, which creates tremendous organizational complexity. This is why the discussion is not what we will do with SUAP and the number of job offers that will appear, because if we do it on our own, we will not solve Most of this little box of the system.

You have to see all and decide how to come to the morning, afternoon, night, weekends, holidays, emergencies … “, explains the counselor, who does not avoid asking about the difficulties of CARPA emergency services and others. Services:” We have not ruled out any possibility and we have analyzed all the options. He concludes that our goal is to know the way in which we can attend all services or make some referrals to reorganize others. “