The works council of Diavida, the new entrepreneur of regular ambulance transport in Cantabria since the beginning of October, asked the Labor Inspectorate to verify the facilities of its three operational bases in the autonomous community in light of the deficiencies reported: lack of changing rooms, lockers and showers for workers, lack of interior lighting in work spaces, among other deficiencies, including the lack of vehicles to cover the service entrusted to them by the Cantabrian Health Service.
As elDiario.es was able to confirm, Diavida has three bases in Cantabria from which the ambulances responsible for transporting patients operate. These are transports to leave the hospital or to carry out medical examinations, for the most part, which do not require emergency, but which currently give rise to many complaints due to the long waits to return home due to the precariousness of the means with which the service is provided. . service.
The Cantabrian Health Service has divided in two the ambulance contract that, until a few months ago, Ambuibérica served as a whole. This company continues to be the winner of urgent transport and Diavida has taken charge of non-urgent or scheduled transport, within an allocation from the Government of Cantabria controversial due to its low price, which would make it “technically unviable” . , according to the unions. Thus, the Valencian company Diavida took over from Ambuibérica on October 1 in the management of regular transport and from the first moment complaints about waiting times began to accumulate.
Despite the response of the Minister of Health, César Pascual (PP), who declared in Parliament that the claims were not only reduced, but were already lower than those of the previous successful bidder, the truth is that patients’ expectations continue to lie down. In fact, currently and for all of Cantabria, there is only one operational ambulance at night, responsible for transporting anyone who has been discharged from hospital or who has undergone a diagnostic examination in a hospital. Likewise, one technician generally travels in the units, instead of two, as provided for in the specifications, and ambulances travel loaded with patients.
Pay and working conditions
The problems for Diavida increase as the weeks go by. There are already worker assemblies and complaints regarding the non-payment of the first pay, as reported by the UGT. The last deadline given by the company, this Tuesday, was missed. The UGT-Fédération des Services Publics therefore filed a complaint with the Body for Extrajudicial Resolution of Labor Disputes (ORECLA) for the non-payment of the first pay of its 136 workers.
The two applicable collective agreements provide for the payment of late salaries either on the last working day, or no later than the first five or three days of the following month, “which the company has not yet done as of Thursday” .
The final step concerns working conditions, which led the works council to request an inspection. The works council, consulted, confirmed having requested the intervention of the Labor Inspectorate due to the conditions in which they work. This media has confirmed from other sources that there are deficiencies in the bases of Laredo, Torrelavega, Santander and Reinosa with a lack of furniture and showers and, in some cases, without interior lighting.
DANA and increase in complaints
The company did not respond to questions sent by elDiario.es about complaints and grievances from its staff, but the Minister of Health, César Pascual (PP), publicly acknowledged this Monday having detected a slight increase in complaints from users. Likewise, he covered up the company by claiming that the catastrophic DANA in Valencia had destroyed 50% of its infrastructure. The ministry, in any case, will act in the matter if the Diavida company does not put an end to the claims, although for the moment it is waiting for the labor dispute it is maintaining for non-payment of wages.
“There are still incidents and they have intensified a little. It’s not chaos, but they’re back. There were medical transportation issues, but they were resolved. Now we know, because professionals and companies have told us, that they are in a delicate situation because of DANA,” Pascual said during the press conference in which he presented the budgets of his department.
The Minister of Health added that he hoped to know “the company’s alternatives, since it has lost 50% of the infrastructure in Valencia.” He raised, in this sense, the question of whether Diavida is capable of overcoming the business crisis with the help of national and Valencian leaders, even if, “if it is not able to provide the service , other decisions will have to be made. ”
