The SANIDAD EXCELENTE platform has echoed the “absolute discomfort” that is taking place among the users of the Valencian Public Health in the urban area of Torrevieja, as many of the patients are receiving a letter from the Department of Health of the Valencian Government changing their assigned family doctor.
The platform reports that there are people in Torrevieja who are seeing their usual family doctor, some of whom say they have been cared for by the same medic for 16 years, replaced by a professional they do not know, and are subsequently going to the health centres to request that they be assigned back to the family doctor who has followed their health evolution for many years.
“It is inexplicable to know what the criteria have been for this change that is leaving citizens deeply concerned who see their health confidence altered after these unilateral decisions and that does not respond to any logic”, they say. “It gives the impression that someone in Valencia has taken a street map from the urban area of Torrevieja and randomly drawing stripes, removing the usual family doctor and putting another.”
The platform continues to criticise the President of the Valencia region, Ximo Puig, for the changes in the health structure around Torrevieja, this time saying that “This unilateral and opaque action that the Government of Ximo Puig has promoted is generating a significant alteration in the confidence of citizens in our public health system. And the worst thing is that there is no short-term solution for citizens who want to exercise their right to choose their doctor and return to the previous situation with the trusted person who has cared for them for many years. The citizens are pointing to Ximo Puig as responsible for this situation.”
The President of Sanidad Excelente, Mamen Mateo, states that, “Users of primary care are terrified by these decisions that do not obey any logical criteria. People with pathologies who have been followed up by their family doctor for many years suddenly see how that figure disappears and a new professional they do not know at all enters the scene. Many of those affected are also of an age that causes them fear and great absolute distrust of the system for this type of change. And we are not given an immediate solution to return to the usual doctor to attend to us.”
