As Spain battles virus, medics' unions hit out
When Spain’s first case of coronavirus was recorded on Jan. 31 - a German tourist in La Gomera, one of the remote Canary Islands - there seemed little cause for concern. “We believe that Spain will have, at most, not more than a few diagnosed cases,” Fernando Simon, the country’s health emergency chief, told reporters.
Now, COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has killed more people in Spain than China, where it originated. Across the globe, the pandemic has swamped health systems and triggered calls for more and better protective equipment for those fighting it.
Spain’s doctors and nurses, who have released clips of each other cutting up plastic garbage bags to use as protective clothing, say their situation is worse than many. More than 15,000 of them are sick or self-isolating and unable to help patients. That’s around 14.7% of the country’s confirmed cases, said a health ministry spokeswoman. One union has said the concentration is higher in the capital Madrid - 21% - the epicentre of the outbreak that has killed more than 9,000 and infected more than 100,000.
Medical workers in Italy, for example, make up just under 10% of reported COVID-19 cases, a smaller share than in Spain - although scientists say the data are not directly comparable because medical staff may not be tested at the same rate.
In a town in Catalonia, as many as one in three medical staff have been out of action because they were infected or self-isolating.
Cellphone footage has aired on Spanish TV and on social media showing patients with oxygen tanks packed into the corridors - some laid out on the corridor floors - of hospitals. In Spain, unions representing Spain’s medical staff are taking action. Unions have filed lawsuits in at least 10 of Spain’s 17 regions asking judges to compel the authorities to provide equipment within 24 hours in line with health and safety law, said a spokeswoman for the national federation of doctors’ unions, CESM. In Catalonia, the top regional court on Tuesday rejected the 24-hour deadline but said authorities must provide protection measures whenever equipment arrives.
The health ministry said it had always acted on scientific evidence, following experts’ recommendations, and taking steps based on a thorough assessment of the situation at any given time. Health Minister Salvador Illa has said the equipment market was simply overwhelmed, but said on Tuesday the ministry had managed “steady and continuous deliveries” of equipment.
“We feel very proud of what the Spanish healthcare workers are doing,” he told a news conference. Spain’s health service, like Italy’s, is run at regional level. The central government took control by declaring a state of emergency on March 14, and the authorities are trying to hire thousands of extra staff. But the health ministry - like everyone globally - has struggled to get hold of supplies.
“The explosion of cases in Spain is not normal ... it has been very poorly managed since the beginning,” said Tomas Toranzo, president of CESM, whose members are filing the suits. “The coronavirus infection was underestimated, treated like a mild flu, and it seemed that this would only affect a few elderly.”
Unions say their members were ignored. Already in February, there were signs the virus was spreading, said Angela Fernandez, a Madrid surgeon and deputy secretary of the doctors’ union AMYTS.