Several hundred personnel from the emergency department of the Canary Islands University Hospital (HUC) protested this Tuesday to highlight what they perceive as the “critical” conditions they face daily at their workplace, where insufficient staffing, an overwhelming number of patients, and infrastructural issues jeopardise the “health of everyone.”
The gathering occurred at the entrance of the hospital, situated in La Laguna, a fortnight after the last appeal made by professionals who sought an immediate resolution that has yet to materialise.
The provincial secretary of the SATSE nursing union, Alejandro Gordillo, remarked that on average, around 250 patients are seen daily in the emergency department, a figure exceeding the advisable limit and one for which they are unable to cope. This issue has resulted in many professionals “looking for transfers en masse because they cannot endure the conditions they are experiencing.”
“We have requested an assessment of workloads from a technician in occupational risk prevention, who will inform us of the necessary number of professionals and all the corrective measures that should be implemented. While we have our own ideas, we need a technical report that clearly identifies the issues and how to resolve them,” Gordillo stated.
During the demonstration, the healthcare workers shouted slogans such as “emergency services are overwhelmed and nothing is being done” and “my vocation is not exploitation,” while they read a manifesto indicating that following the last mobilisation, “the managers and the political class” pledged to enhance the situation, yet the “health of patients and the dignity of the profession” “cannot wait any longer.”
The “chronic overload,” they continued, leads to prolonged waiting times, care provided in corridors, and a standard of care that fails to meet what the “patients deserve,” creating an “unsustainable work environment” that endangers “the physical and emotional well-being of the staff,” and they have insisted that urgent action be taken with the “immediacy that the situation demands.”
