from thefreeonline on 16th Jan 2923 by elcomunista.net
Some 30,000 people, according to data from the Government Delegation in Madrid, have attended the demonstration.
Through chants and banners we have shown our anger over the health conflict that the Community of Madrid is experiencing.
30,000 people took to the streets this Sunday in the capital, within the framework of the 97 White Tide, to criticize the rampant privatization and cuts in public health in the Community of Madrid and request more resources and financing for public services in the region.
The low temperatures in the capital have not deterred the protesters, summoned by the Platform in Defense of Public Health – Marea Blanca, who through chants and banners have shown their rage over the health conflict between the unions and the regional government that has plagued Community of Madrid for months.
They have made it known through slogans such as “2023, public health without a solution”, “health is not for sale, health is defended”, “less speeches and more resources” or “cutting health is a criminal act”. , in a march in which criticism has also been made of the Ministry of Health and the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Demanding “action”
A
t the head of the protest, in front of a banner with the text “no to cuts and privatization, yes to health and public services”, Marisa Torres, spokesperson for the White Tide, has asked that the political leaders ” act once and for all” to solve the problem and has justified that there are “reasons” to be on the streets “with insistence and persistence”.
“If primary care is not given a solution now, together with the fact that the primary care emergency centers are not even working because we have them without equipment, everything is going to collapse in hospital emergencies, as we are seeing, and what is going to be generated is chaos and the collapse of the entire public system”, she stressed in statements to the press.
Torres has denounced that there are 800,000 patients in the region who are not assigned “neither a doctor nor a nurse nor a pediatrician”, which conflicts with the Health Regulation Law of the Community of Madrid.
“They want to implement the public-private system and we are totally against it, because public money has to go to the public”, she has argued.
‘More Madrid’ and ‘Unidas Podemos’ attend the demonstration
The leader of Más Madrid in the regional Assembly, Mónica García, has attended the protest to show her support for the demonstrators and, paraphrasing the new song by Shakira and the Argentine producer Bizarrap, has assured that the regional government “pretends to be our champion and when it is most needed he gives its worst version ”.
“Health professionals are no longer crying, the professionals are on strike and are acting”, she ironized in statements to journalists, while criticizing Ayuso’s “botch” and “arrogance” in the management of the health conflict and has asked that the politicians”Stop looking” at Moncloa presidential palace and focus on the problems of the people of Madrid.
The co-spokesperson for Unidas Podemos in the Madrid Assembly, Alejandra Jacinto, has also made use of a current song , who considering that the Community of Madrid, being the “richest region in all of Europe”, deserves a healthcare that is ” a Ferrari”, but Ayuso “is not even offering us even a Twingo”.
In her opinion, the president of the regional government intends to deploy a “business” plan so that people who want healthcare “have to pay for it.”
Demonstrations for health tour Spain
During this weekend, the demonstrations for public health have also traveled to other parts of Spain. In Terrassa, Barcelona, a rally on Saturday demanded improvements in primary care, having paediatricians and dentists in all outpatient clinics and making an appointment with a family doctor in a maximum of 2 days.
They have also taken to the streets in Bilbao, where they denounced saturated primary care and ask that 200 toilets be hired to be able to better care for patients.
These protests coincide with the saturated emergencies in several hospitals due to more respiratory diseases, the peak of flu and also the lack of personnel and toilets, and the strikes in some communities.
In some Madrid hospitals, such as La Paz, they assure that some patients have had to wait two or three days to even be able to go up to the floor to be admitted.
At least eight other communities are on the brink of strike action. Among them, the Valencian Community, Catalonia and Aragon, where the hospitals are saturated and whose doctors denounce the lack of personnel and a collapse in the emergencies sectionsthat has intensified with the wave of respiratory viruses across the country.
The Free 