ALMERIA’S hospitals have bagged a record €9.2 million ahead of the busy summer season.
The cash will pay for 1,400 healthcare professionals to guarantee adequate services in four hospitals and 220 medical centres in the region.
This year’s budget is up 4.5 per cent on 2017 and is again a record amount for the province’s annual Summer Health Plan.
Francisca Anton, the managing director of Andalucia’s Health Service (SAS) said the budget increase “guarantees” both programmed and urgent healthcare operations.
Most newly contracted staff will be posted to coastal areas to attend to bulging populations there.
This summer’s contracting strategy has targeted family and community staff because of national shortages in this sector.
Authorities have been sourcing staff using a three-pronged approach since May. They offered jobs to those on the SAS’s temporary staff register, ran entrance examinations for professionals in non-Andalucia regions and offered contracts to all specialists who finished training in May. And the central job exchange unions backed the moves.
The relatively strong supply of staff this summer meant authorities decided to stretch the new appointments out until December.
They hope this will help to attract and retain the maximum possible number of staff.
SAS generates the some of the highest public employment rates in the country compared to other regional medical services during the summer.
