Health
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Iván Gelibter
Malaga
Tuesday, 17 September 2024, 11:59
Opciones para compartir
Primary care in Malaga (and in the rest of Andalucía) is not living its best moments. Since the beginning of September securing a family doctor or nurse appointment in the Malaga-Guadalhorce health district has been almost impossible. It is therefore disappointing to note that, amid this crisis, during all of 2023 almost 600,000 of these much-needed appointment slots were not honoured by patients which is around eight per cent of all appointments.
To put the data in context, as provided by the Andalusian regional government's health ministry, in 2023 users of the public health service in Malaga (the city itself and Guadalhorce valley) requested a total of 7,031,687 appointments. This amount includes face-to-face and telephone appointments with a GP, paediatrician or nurse. Of these 568,727 remained empty, either the person requesting the appointment did not attend in person or they did not pick up the phone. Worse still, they did not cancel it.
This represents 8.09% of all appointments, almost one percentage point less than in 2022, when the Andalusian health service (SAS) registered 7,739,982 requests and 689,351 no-shows (8.91% of the total) in the same health district. However, it should be remembered that in 2022 the Covid-19 pandemic was on its last legs, so some extra no-shows were perhaps to be expected. Across both years the health centres of La Trinidad and Alhaurín el Grande were the two with the highest percentage increases. La Trinidad in particular went from 6.09% to 8.91% of no-shows.
Why is it important to know these figures? A few days ago, SUR published information highlighting that the lack of medical professionals was holding up offering more primary care appointments in Malaga. When asked about this situation, the health delegation in Malaga admitted that the problem existed, but that it was a "one-off" issue. Maribel González, head of patient services for SAS in the Malaga-Guadalhorce district, referred directly to the lack of professionals as the main reason, although it was not the only reason.
González pointed out that "all patients" who come to health centres are attended to according to the gravity of what sends them, but at the same time she expressed regret that many of the medical appointments that are requested end in a no-show thanks to the patient not cancelling. She also reminded the public that mobile applications such as Salud Responde record all attempts to request medical appointments and that data is then held in a "mailbox" to then grant the appointment as soon as there is availability, but only if patients cancel their slots.
On the other hand, as these no-shows only amount to eight percent, the medical professionals do not share her thinking that this is a crucial element when considering the situation that primary care is almost at the point of collapse. In fact, some doctors consulted by this newspaper argue that, if everyone who asked for, and secured, an appointment were to attend, the problem "could be even worse", as many of these doctors use these 'gaps' to attend to patients who have queued up at the health centre for an ad-hoc appointment due to the lack of availability of scheduled appointments at the centre.
Still on the same issue, sources consulted from the medical union of Malaga (SMM) consider that this number of no-shows is due to the fact that patients have either already been cured of their ailment (bear in mind that some appointments can be for two weeks after someone reports feeling unwell), or they have ended up going to private healthcare or to a hospital accident and emergency department due to the lack of options available at their local health centre.
In any case, both medical professionals and the regional health ministry itself agree that patients who decide not to stick to their appointments - for whatever reason - should cancel them in order to leave those slots free for others.
No appointments
What does seem to be evident is that the problems that began in early September for primary care have continued, which contradicts the regional ministry's suggestion that this was a "one-off problem". The end of the summer holidays and, above all, the lack of medical professionals in the health centres are the main causes of this collapse in primary care, the most representative image of which are the queues to be seen for emergency consultations.
After a "hellish" summer, as described by the professionals consulted and SMM, the arrival of September has only made things worse. The temporary contracts for residents issued for additional cover over the summer have come to an end (that much is known and expected), but the new posts that should have taken over these temp contracts has not been completed. To this must be added the unforeseen absences (admittedly difficult to forecast), but there are also those that were bound to occur and are known well in advance - for instance, paternity or maternity leave, retirements and those reducing their working hours.
María Ángeles Bernal, a member of SMM's primary care committee, explained it as follows a few days ago: "We have a body of staff that is already understaffed, to which has been added the fact that residents finish in September instead of before the summer. This has meant that the situation has been very complicated for a few months now. Moreover, it was planned that doctors who successfully competed for posts by transfer or merit points would take up their posts before the summer, but it was not until this week that they began to arrive. Throughout September we are waiting for the new doctors to take up their posts, but this means that there are fewer people working than there should be."
These queues and the lack of appointments are still continuing, at least until the last time SUR checked this week.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Necesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.