Popular Party pledges a revolution in health sector with "no cuts"

The former health minister and social affairs coordinator for the opposition Popular Party, Ana Pastor, promised on Monday that if her party were to win the upcoming general elections, there would be "no cuts in the health system," but rather "a revolution" in human resources in the sector, as well as "structural reforms."

Speaking during an informal conference with a hundred or so business figures in Barcelona, Pastor said that the PP will present "a state pact with all of the political and social forces and health professionals to make the system sustainable, as well as making sure it is sufficiently financed and undergoes structural reforms."

According to Pastor, more efficient management is required in the system, citing examples such as the fact that "the number of prescriptions in Spain almost doubles those of neighboring countries."

Meanwhile, the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) on Monday proposed to labor unions that health workers in the region should accept a 50-percent cut to their Christmas bonus. The measure would affect the nearly 40,000 health workers employed by the public body, which is a branch of the regional health department.

The president of the Barcelona Official Medical College, Miquel Vilardell, reacted by saying that this new salary cut would be "unaffordable" for medical professionals. The cash-strapped regional government needs to make savings of 77 million euros before the end of the year.

More than half of that amount is due to come out of medical sector salaries: a total of 45 million euros. Negotiations regarding the cuts began on Monday, but labor unions have already called them unacceptable: the average salary reduction would be 1,125 euros for each of the 40,000 ICS employees - roughly 375 euros a month until the end of the year.

The health chief of the CiU nationalist bloc-run regional government, Boi Ruiz, on Monday called on the health workers dependent on the ICS to swallow the new salary cuts, "as other collectives are doing." Ruiz has suggested that the economic efforts that are being made by health workers, who already saw their salaries reduced by seven percent last year, will be reversible in January 2012.

"This is a serious situation of conflict," Vilardell told regional broadcaster TV3, going on to say that after the seven-percent cut last year and a reduction in overtime, some medical professionals have seen their salaries reduced by 20 percent.