Social organizations and unions have urged the Minister of Health of the Generalitat, Manel Balcells, to “go back” on the new primary care pediatric model, which includes the launch in 2024 of a total of 79 territorial teams of pediatric care (ETAP) with nurses and paediatricians, and which opts for a proximity service. This is how they explained it today in a press conference Recover Pediatrics in Turó de la Peira, COP La Canadenca, Casal Popular 3 Voltes Rebel, Commission for Public Health 100% of Vallès Occidental, Catalan Primary Care Forum, Marea Blanca, the Federation of ‘Associations of Residents of Barcelona and the CGT and Som Intersindical unions.
These organizations maintain that the concentration in large centers does not guarantee quality service to families, who in some cases will have to travel outside the municipality where they reside. They also denounce that professionals will lose direct contact with the territory and the children’s environment. According to his criteria, this new model represents another step in the “dismantling” of public primary care.
From the family platform SOS Pediatria Sabadell, David Bergadà told this newspaper that the pediatric concentration model replicates what has been done for years in cities such as Sabadell, Lleida, Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Tortosa, Granollers… In Sabadell, he adds, the change It started under the pretext of Covid and has been consolidated. “In the central-southern part of Sabadell they also wanted to do it but we mobilized to prevent it.” Bergadà claims to be in contact with other platforms to decide whether or not to undertake protest actions.
Other entities from smaller municipalities also report that for a long time they have had to travel to receive care. In Santa Margarida de Montbui they have a three-hour round trip, they say. In this sense, Salut sources told La Vanguardia that the ETAP “will be physically in a CAP”, not in another type of building, and that “some of them” will have the capacity to travel to serve different geographical locations.
