Private healthcare on a war footing in the Community of Madrid. Some 75,000 employees of private and subsidized centers have managed to get the Mediation and Arbitration Institute of the Community of Madrid to sit next Monday, March 18, at the Regional Labor Institute Foundation, with the employers’ association so that the companies that own private hospitals or agreed parties comply with the salary agreement signed last July. In addition to private companies, there are religious orders that also manage health centers, which are paying doctors, nurses, assistants and administrators below what is established by law and was agreed upon last summer. In total, there are 50 hospitals and 5,000 small private clinics operating in the Community of Madrid, according to data managed by CCOO.
In addition, among them, in Madrid there are three public centers, the Rey Juan Carlos Hospital in Móstoles, the Villalba Hospital, the Infanta Elena de Valdemoro Hospital whose management was transferred to the company Quirón Salud, as well as the one in Torrejón, managed by Ribera. Health. In these four public centers, the management and hiring of personnel was handed over to these private companies.
In this context of public health with ceded management, “their workforces are undervalued because their salary tables are far below those of public health professionals,” the unions denounce. They serve more than 530,000 citizens, but their staff does not belong to the Sermas (Madrid Health Service).
The discomfort over low salaries was already perceived on March 5 with the first mobilization of half a thousand professionals to demand their rights and compliance with the agreements signed in the Collective Agreement of Health Establishments for Hospitalization, Health Care, Consultations and Laboratories of Clinical Analysis, at the doors of the Rey Juan Carlos Hospital.
According to CCOO, “in this center, the malpractice of the giant Quirón Salud with its professionals and the failure to comply with the agreements signed with CCOO Sanidad Madrid, the majority union in private healthcare in the region, exhausted the patience of the workers.” This business group, according to the union, receives a significant amount of public funds from public health in the region.
It is expected that at next Monday’s meeting, the Mediation and Arbitration Institute of the Community of Madrid will force employers to ensure that their associated companies comply with the established salaries.
