Clinic La Asuncion is now closing its internal medicine unit

Toulouse Yesterday the Action Committee appeared at the La Asuncion de Tolosa clinic run by Inviza to denounce the “dismantling” of another medical service at the center, this time the internal medicine unit. “During the past three years, the department has eliminated the anesthesia service, the intensive care unit service and the trauma service. At other times, the attendance of professionals has been massive and the clinic, which serves as a hospital area, is devoid of hematology service,” the workers denounced.

Committee members, represented by ELA and LAB, were deeply concerned about the drift the clinic was taking. “The last thing is the closure of the internal medicine unit consisting of three internists and a geriatrician, and it provided a vital service to the hospital, as the file of the treated patient is multi-disease. Other hospitals of similar size offer this service with seven internists in addition to the head of service.”

Workers assert that in the midst of a pandemic and with a significant increase in medical assistance, laying off doctors with a long history in the clinic makes clear that “the goal of management is not to provide good service to citizens, but to continue to fatten the operating account.” They emphasized that they had denounced “more than once that the administration focuses on numbers and working times, and not on the quality of care.” In addition to denouncing the recent dismantling of a basic service, bonded workers questioned their working conditions, far from those of Osakiditza workers, despite the fact that more than 95% of their patients belonged to the public order. They denounced, “The dislocated service physicians assert that it was unreasonable to provide good assistance with the workload they had to bear. He took over the functions of a regional hospital, but with fewer staff and worse conditions.”

The Business Council has also expressed concerns about the career plan that the Department of Health is drafting in connection with the new General Hospital to be built in Tolosa. “We still don’t have any news about the said plan, that is, we still don’t know what kind of hospital it will be or the services it will provide. Regarding the future of the hospital staff, we don’t have any news either,” they emphasized.

In this sense, they called on both the Basque government and the mayor of Tolosa, Olatz Peon, to “give priority” to the Tolusaldia Hospital Deployment Project. They ask to be a “one hundred percent” public hospital. That it provides all the services that might be available in a nearby regional hospital – no less than those offered by the La Asuncion clinic – and that the project includes all workers “who for many years have provided public service at La Assumption Hospital Asuncion”.