The High Court of Justice of Galicia.
The High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) has condemned the Xunta de Galicia and the Galician Health Service (Sergas) by “violate the rights of doctors of Primary Care and pediatricians” of the public health system of the autonomous community, thus supporting the limitation of medical agendas due to “occupational risk”. The court also argues that current regulations have not been respected to guarantee their public integrity and health.
The sentence of the Social Chamber of the Galician high court responds to the demand for collective conflict that the Union of Independent Physicians of Galicia O’Mega had presented last August to denounce the disproportionate workload to which the Sergas and the Ministry of Health subjected doctors and pediatricians of Primary Care in Galicia, forced to care for a daily average of 70 patientstwice the limit established by the Galician Government itself in the regional regulations designed to offer quality healthcare.
The TSXG declares proven in this sentence that Sergas, dependent on the Ministry of Health, “breaches its obligations in terms of occupational risk prevention, assessment of the workload of the medical community and assessment of the risks of their workplace” and condemns the two public bodies sued to “immediately affect the mandatory occupational risk assessmentincluding specifically and specifically the psychosocial assessment of the jobs of Primary Care physicians and paediatricians”.
In its claim before the TSXG, the O’Mega medical union denounced that the work overload to which doctors are subjected Primary Care causes damage both for medical personnel -by causing work disabilities to multiply as well as the risk of issuing an erroneous diagnosis- and for public health users, who do not receive quality care in accordance with the standards designed by the Galician government.
In fact, O’Mega made it clear in his lawsuit that despite the fact that Galicia has had a regulation called ‘Criterios de Calidade das Axendas dos/as Medicos/as de Familia de Atención Primaria’ that sets the maximum number of patients to 40 that a Primary Care physician can attend to in one day, “repeatedly and constantly” doctors are forced to serve consultations of up to 80 patients in the 300 minutes that they have in their working day, which gives an average of just over three and a half minutes per patient, time that for the union is “absolutely insufficient to offer quality health care.”
health risk
The high court details that the Galician Health Administration did not put into practice the occupational risk prevention plans that it had to adopt according to current regulations and with it endangered the health of doctors and pediatricians who work in the Sergas Primary Care system.
The ruling includes a Labor Inspection report in which “a general breach of the preventive regulations in force in relation to the performance of the psychosocial risk assessments” to which physicians are subjected due to their high workload.
Though admits that “the exhaustion of professionals It is an indisputable fact due to their dedication”, the TSXG does not rule on the fact that the high number of patients they must attend to each day violates the right of doctors to their own health because, as indicated in the ruling, that ” exceeds this procedure”.
The Secretary General of the Independent Galician Doctors Union-O’Mega, manuel rodriguezexpressed his satisfaction with the fact that the TSXG has ratified in its sentence the facts denounced by his union.
Likewise, it highlighted the inconsistency that the regional Administration, which is in charge of monitoring compliance with the legislation on occupational risk prevention, fails to comply with its workers precisely the same regulations that it intends to enforce with Galician companies. .
Although it may contain statements, data or notes from health institutions or professionals, the information contained in Redacción Médica is edited and prepared by journalists. We recommend to the reader that any health-related questions be consulted with a health professional.
