On December 3, Doctor’s Day is celebrated in the country and in America. The Union Association of Health Professionals (CICOP) is the union that has brought together doctors from public hospitals in the province for almost 35 years. It is represented in the 80 provincial hospitals, in the Posadas National Hospital and also in the 240 municipal hospitals. It has 12,000 active members and 3,000 in La Plata. Pablo Maciel is the president of the CICOP since March 2021. He is 43 years old and is a staff clinician at the San Martín de La Plata General Hospital, where he completed his career and was a union delegate. in dialogue with 0221.com.arthe leader spoke about the employment situation that the sector is going through after the pandemic, the difficulty in filling vacancies in hospitals and also the rise in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
—What is the current situation of the sector?
—The situation is complex because we have been going through a very deep crisis of the entire health system, a global crisis that affects the public subsector, the subsector of social works and the private sector. It is a crisis that began a long time ago but that, without a doubt, the pandemic accelerated and deepened. And that is seen in different phenomena: on the one hand, the growing number of vacancies in residences. This indicates that young professionals choose to train in another way and not by doing a residency in a public hospital. And on the other hand, it can be seen in the precipitous drop in the number of Medicine graduates throughout the country. The number of graduates from public and private medical universities in the last three years fell dramatically: it is close to 50%, and that has to do with the fact that young people choose other careers.
—What is this about?
—It is multifactorial but, without a doubt, low wages in the health sector and poor working conditions play a very important role. It is a problem that increased during the pandemic, which is why there is a high degree of conflict in the health sector in the country and at a global level, I would encourage myself to say, since we see in the post-pandemic a number of processes of struggles and claims by the health team very important.
—CICOP carried out a strike this week and launched another for the 7th. Are they demanding the reopening of parities?
—There is a plan of struggle for which a strike was carried out this week and another is scheduled for December 7 in coordination with other unions from other provinces of the country through the National Union Federation of Health Workers (FESINTRAS). ), of which we are part. And it has the salary claim occupying a central place due to the backwardness of the sector that had a very significant loss between 2016 and 2019, with a loss of purchasing power that exceeded 30 points, of which we still have not recovered even half and also the inflationary process That it can end with 3-digit inflation makes this situation even more distressing. But, in addition to salary, they are union measures that have to do with other claims such as the labor regularization of a huge number of professionals who entered with scholarships, few in the Province, a very important number in the Municipalities. Also the demand for the approval of a law that we agreed on at the joint level and that has parliamentary status in the Legislature that will allow around 5,000 professionals, mostly nursing graduates, to pass professional career law 10,471. That would be recognizing them as professionals after the pandemic and it will impact a significant salary increase for this sector but it will also allow them to pursue a career in hospitals and be able to compete for functions. We also demand that the non-taxable minimum of the Income Tax be raised, which hits our sector very hard in coordination with a lot of unions from the CTA, the CGT, supporting a project of the national deputy of the Frente de Todos, Sergio Palazzo. Finally, we are demanding that the special regime for work burnout that we agreed with the Province be extended to the 240 municipal hospitals. This regime allows professionals who have premature burnout to lower the retirement age to 50 years.
—What salary increase have you had so far?
—The parity was in April and had an important review and monitoring clause that Governor Axel Kicillof respected. That allowed us to have updates every two months and We are currently at a cumulative increase of 94.36% compared to December 2021. A professional who does not have seniority and does not have a guard is left with an average pocket salary of 160,000 pesos and the one who has guards at 180,000 pesos. We still need the last negotiation of the year that will take place in the coming weeks because that is the commitment that the government made: that will determine the final number of the 2022 parity.
—Would you accept a bonus at the end of the year?
—We in the parity sphere are going to ask for blank increases. We are proposing a salary recomposition, that is, in addition to the percentage that impacts the basic, we want to discuss the structure of our salary receipt to improve the pyramid that is very flat and means that those who have been in a hospital for 20 years earn very little silver. Our seniority impacts very little, we still have sums and bonuses in black, and we want to somehow improve the quantity and quality of salary. Afterwards, outside of parity, what the State wants to grant -as a bonus- is welcome in this very difficult economic situation.
—What is the current situation of the residents?
—The movement of residents at the national level has been highly mobilized and has to do with the fact that it is the sector of the hospital that has the greatest overload and had the greatest impact during the pandemic and that, in addition, suffers an extra overload that has to do with supplying the shortcomings that we have in hospitals due to the lack of professionals. And that is why today they are very mobilized. It had its epicenter in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires with seven weeks of uninterrupted unemployment and there was also mobilization in the province. It must be said that in the Province the residents’ struggle began several years ago and proposed, in addition to changes in wages and working conditions, and there was an agreement on a new regulation for residents that CICOP had been proposing for six years. . This regulation has to do with eliminating 24-hour guards that no longer exist in a large part of the world and that is still the work modality in Argentina. In other words, the residents of the Province have spearheaded a paradigm shift by reducing shifts to a maximum of 12 hours, reducing the working day to 8 hours a day, removing weekends, and also safeguarding the hours for training and research. And another point that was agreed with the provincial government is that residents have retirement contributions, with which they are recognized with full labor rights, so the achievement has been very important. Later, in terms of salary, a salary bonus was added for residents who have guard duty and that means that, So far this year, a first-year resident has had an increase of more than 130%.
—Is there something to celebrate in this 2022?
—Our sector has to celebrate very important and structural achievements that have modified our working conditions. The new regulations for residents, which is undoubtedly a significant change and having achieved the full application of the work burnout for the entire professional and non-professional sector as well, so it has been a year of very positive changes for health workers.
—There is a growth in COVID cases in recent weeks. How does that translate to hospitals?
—For now it is a growth of cases that impacted in outpatient clinics and on guards with mild symptoms of colds, flu. So far we have not had hospitalizations for this reason, neither in the basic care rooms nor in the intensive care room, but we are following it very closely because it has not been said how it will evolve. This is a pandemic that we are not aware of, which continues to go through different stages, therefore we are monitoring the situation carefully. Today the most important thing is to promote vaccination, the corresponding reinforcements to prevent serious cases.