The Ministry of Health proposes an 8.5% increase in doctors’ salaries

This Saturday, the health minister proposed to unions a 5.5% to 8.5% increase in doctors’ salary updates, a counter-proposal he says is closer to the union’s demands if a reduction in working hours is also considered.

“The government’s proposal to all doctors is that the hourly wage, from January onwards, will increase by 22.7% because reducing working hours increases the hourly wage and it increases because today we proposed to update salaries by 8.5%,” Manuel Pizarro noted. .

The Minister of Health spoke in statements to journalists, at the conclusion of another negotiating meeting with the Independent Syndicate of Doctors (SIM) and the National Federation of Doctors (Fnam), which ended without reaching an agreement.

Negotiations will resume on Wednesday, at which point the Ministry of Health will submit a new counter-proposal that includes the value of the salary update, which until now has been 5.5%.

However, the demand of the unions representing doctors is to increase salaries by about 30%, but, according to the minister, the government’s position is no longer far-fetched, and within the scope of the full dedication system, the increase may reach a significant extent. be higher.

“The full dedication models, which all doctors can freely commit to, are models that lead to an immediate salary increase of around 35%, and the move of all family health units to Model B will mean that many doctors in primary care can see that,” he explained. Wages increased by about 60%, stressing the need to “consider a set of proposals.”

On the other hand, regarding one of the other main demands of doctors – the replacement of 35 hours per week – Manuel Pizarro reiterated his willingness to consider this schedule, but stressed that “there must be 35 hours of effective work”.

“These measures must be balanced by, on the one hand, valuing doctors and giving them better conditions to reconcile their professional and family lives, while ensuring that the NHS improves its work. This is what we need to do to achieve it.” Maintained.

Ahead of the next negotiating meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the minister acknowledged that the method of calculating working hours, within the scope of the 35-hour replacement per week, was the most divisive issue.