A massive march demanded better public health this Sunday in Madrid, called by groups of health workers and neighbors who denounce the deterioration of this service that regional governments manage in Spain.
Some 200,000 demonstrators toured the center of the Spanish capital according to government sources, while the organizers raised the number of participants in this march to around 670,000 with the slogan “Madrid stands up for Public Health.”
The organizers, backed by unions and political parties, accuse the president of the regional government, the conservative Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of “destroying” this public service.
The participants demanded that the protests spread throughout the country in defense of a quality public health system, in a tour enlivened by music groups while chanting slogans against the regional president and carrying banners with slogans in support of professionals in the sector.
The left-wing national government expressed, through the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, its support for the protesters, because “our lives depend on it.”
A head of the Satse nursing union, Teresa Galindo, stressed that “enough of abuse and fatigue”, because “without doctors” health does not work.
Other representatives of different unions warned that “it will not be allowed” for the Ayuso government to continue cutting back on a fundamental right such as health, they highlighted the “communion” between patients and professionals in defense of this public service and described the protest as “Awesome”.
In addition to Madrid, in Santander (north) hundreds of people gathered to demand improvements in the public health service.
Health personnel demand improvements such as more professionals to be able to dedicate more time to each patient, since many doctors have to attend to more than fifty patients a day, reject the videoconference care system for urgent cases and denounce a saturation of work especially in areas such as primary and pediatric care.
These professionals were called to a strike from last Friday until this Sunday in the Madrid region, while different groups propose a strike from November 21 throughout Spain.
