Nurses denounce closure of 244 beds in major Malaga city hospital over busy summer holiday period

The SATSE nurses' union has called on all nursing staff to join a strike on Wednesday, 18 June, to denounce the Hospital Regional's holiday plan to reduce beds at the health faciliity in Malaga city by 244 during the summer season. According to the union, this plan is doomed "to failure", guaranteeing the repetition of the "real nightmares" that the last two summers have been.

To highlight the urgency of the situation, SATSE says that, so far this year, an average of 30 people have waited for a bed in the emergency department, "outside the summer period and with one floor closed". With that said, "the closure of more floors ensures the total and daily collapse of the A&E department and increased pressure on the rest of the units".

In addition to this, SATSE has warned that there is a shortage of nurses in all units, which means that the demonstration on Wednesday will only be the beginning of "a general strike with minimum services". "The feared by the professionals summer period is nothing more than the extension of the care disaster that is experienced daily in our hospital," said the union.

"Once the pressure on care increases, the second phase of the holiday plan is to open the closed beds, for which they will improvise contracts as they go along. From precedents we already know that, under such circumstances, temporary and less experienced staff will be given the junk contracts, while all professionals will be in charge of the unbearable shifts, the issues caused by the holidays, the excess of accumulated hours, the lack of resources, etc., which will lead to an increase in sick leave, reductions and resignations," claims the union.

The reason for the strike, which will start at 10.30am on the steps of Block A of the hospital, is "to ensure that there is no shortage of nurses in the units that attend to patients".

For SATSE, it is incomprehensible that the same nightmare is repeated summer after summer. "The attempt to normalise this situation that extends to 365 days a year in our centre has brought us to the point of saying enough is enough and initiating a protest rally on 18 June. It is a strike for the health of the professionals and for the good of the patients, which is why the slogan of the strike will be 'For our patients, for our health'," said the union.

The management of the Hospital Regional has explained that it is working on a holiday plan "adapted to the needs of both professionals and patients, with the aim of allowing workers to rest without compromising the quality of healthcare".

"The centre's care planning is dynamic and adjusts to seasonal variations, guaranteeing an adequate response to the changing needs of the population," according to the regional government of Andalucía. The Junta added that this plan follows the guidelines of the Andalusian health service (SAS), "based on historical data and with a significant economic investment of 135 million euros at regional level, which guarantees efficient management of human resources".

"The commitment of the SAS to increase the workforce with more than 30,000 new professionals and job stabilisation allows for better planning and management of resources. As for the Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, the economic investment allocated to this plan amounts to 4,200,000 euros - the same figure as last year," said the hospital board.

According to management sources, the hospital "constantly adapts its work plan in order to respond effectively to the healthcare needs of the population". "This dynamic planning is based on a continuous evaluation of the available resources, which allows us to prioritise safety, efficiency and continuity in healthcare at all times," they state.