Pedro Subias.
“I retired in January 2022, in the middle of a pandemic, but also when the attention in my office was beginning to be closer to normal,” Subias details, assuring that during these last two years there have been relevant changes with the that we will have to live together from now on, “like that telephone and virtual attention have more and more weight”.
Subias recognizes that for him to adapt to it “It has been a real slab”but in the end they are even more practical and efficient for those busy patients, although along the way “shreds of contact between the doctor and the patient in the face-to-face consultation are lost”.
What is it like to retire in the middle of a pandemic?
On how an exceptional situation such as the one caused by the covid health crisis is experienced in the rural medicine, Subias affirms that “the peculiarities of the rural environment in the approach to the pandemic were different and very diverse”. “Here it has been easier to maintain contact with the elderly who were confined to their homes and with chronic patients, since in our environment they have followed regular check-ups ‘quite’ normally,” he admits, noting that “The work of the nurse and administrative has been admirable all this time.”
In addition, following his retirement, the doctor reflects on the reasons that led him to dedicate himself to rural medicine and what future he augurs for it. “He studied at the Zaragoza Faculty of Medicine and then the Family Medicine residency”, Subias begins by recounting, admitting that he “belongs to the fourth promotion of the specialty”. “My father was a rural doctor and worked in towns in Huesca, this meant that I spent my entire childhood in a town,” the doctor tells this newspaper.
“I think this makes me see rural life naturally and makes me feel more comfortable than in the city,” he says, assuring that “in Family Medicine cares for people throughout their lives, you know their families, their environment and their community”. “This perspective is consistent with my concept of the practice of medicine, and in rural areas this is experienced more clearly,” he relates.
But, What makes Rural Medicine so special? “When you work in a town, you do it in a natural environment and with people rooted in the territory,” Subias begins by explaining. “The rhythm of life and work is more in keeping with human beings, it’s calmer, you can talk to people and walk the paths that take you to distant farmhouses,” he adds.
In addition, the doctor points out that in small towns they have a self-help network, “the community cares for each person who forms it”. “In Sant Iscle, the town where I have worked since 1997, there was ‘society’, when one fell ill the rest worked the land on weekends”, he says, and admits that in these environments “the rural doctor and nurse have close contact with the town hall and town entities”. “This gives you support in your day-to-day needs and is an effective two-way information medium: you inform and they inform you,” she points out.
“The family doctor cares for patients throughout their lives”
Finally, Subias talks regarding the ’emptied Spain’ and if there are fewer and fewer doctors who want to practice medicine in rural settings. “The universities and hospitals are in big cities. “You study the degree and do the MIR in an urban environment. That’s where most job offers come up when you finish your specialty,” he says.
“It is normal that at the time of joining your professional career you need to complete your training, in my case the rural period has been the second half of my working life”, he acknowledges, before wondering if “this means that older doctors go to the town or, on the contrary, the neo-rural movement that is taking place and that has been intensified by the pandemic, will lead young professionals to the peoples”. “It remains to be seen, but I think that doctors belong to the time in which we live and the challenge of rural medicine is no different from that of the rural world itself,” she concludes.
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