About thirty service heads, section heads and unit managers of the La Paz Children’s Hospital have sent a letter to the center’s management to demand that the appropriate measures be urgently adopted to resolve “the crisis” triggered by the closure. of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
In the letter, they point out that “there is a significant risk to the adequate care of our pediatric patients due to the total absence of intensive care physicians” who specialize in children.
All staff doctors assigned to the service, with the sole exception of their boss and a physician, have submitted requests for medical leave or have resigned from their contracts, an “unusual and unprecedented event” that has occurred, they state in the text, as a direct consequence of the reinstatement last week of the head of service, Dr. Pedro de la Oliva, to his job, ordered by the judicial authority.
This situation has generated “multiple absolutely undesirable consequences”, which the promoters of the writing intend to reverse with all the means at their disposal, “in defense of the health of children and to preserve excellence in care for hospitalized patients, as well as to “all those who, coming from other parts of the country, could potentially be affected and not receive due attention.”
They highlight that this situation has led to the transfer of patients to other critical care units, the suspension of surgical activities, the referral of patients to other hospitals, the serious impact of transplant programs, the limitation in teaching capacity, the possible loss of the status of Center, Service and Reference Unit (CSUR) for the PICU and an added difficulty in the relationship with patients, family members and patient associations, harmed by delays, suspensions of care processes and/or delays or impediments to possible transfers .
In fact, several families are going to deliver a total of 103,000 signatures tomorrow to the Ministry of Health to request that this unit be saved.
Each of the Children’s Hospital services that maintain a daily relationship with the ICU expresses its willingness to provide “abundant documentation that shows the serious deterioration in care that has resulted from the crisis unleashed throughout the La Paz Children’s Hospital.”
Likewise, they request that both the Community of Madrid and the judicial authorities responsible be informed of the “undesirable consequences of resolutions that are having secondary effects that are incompatible with the demands of a social good as superior as the health of the patients treated in “La Paz Children’s Hospital”.
The signatories of the letter have requested that it be sent to the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; to the Minister of Health, Fátima Matute; to the general lawyer of the Community of Madrid, Luis Banciella, to the general director of Human Resources of the Community of Madrid; to the General Council of the Judiciary; Contentious-Administrative Court number 24 of Madrid; to the Guard Court; to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office; to the Ombudsman; to the Patient Advocate and the Minor Advocate.
Dr. Pedro de la Oliva was previously dismissed as head of service by the Management Directorate of the La Paz University Hospital in 2020, with the support of the Technical Assistance Board (JTA), as a result of the application of a conflict protocol.
This decision led to the presentation of a disciplinary file before the General Directorate of Human Resources of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas).
Currently, the agreements adopted are in various phases of different judicial processes.
The approval of one of the appeals filed by Dr. De la Oliva resulted in his provisional reinstatement as head of the UCIP Service, also by order of the Contentious-Administrative Court number 24 of Madrid, on September 25, 2023.
However, the head of service was dismissed again on December 21, 2023 by decision of the hospital management, following the recommendation of the Technical Assistance Board (JTA), upon confirming his inability to lead the medical team of the Service composed of eleven doctors.
During this period, discontent with the management of that head of service has become evident, to the point that the active staff on December 20 was reduced to only three doctors, a situation that forced the management team to order his dismissal. one more time.
