Chaos in Nuclear Medicine of Castellón Provincial Hospital
Chaos is taking over the Nuclear Medicine service of the Castellón Provincial Hospital, the only service in the province that prepares reports on cancer patients for subsequent treatments. Following the resignation of a doctor and the resignation of another specialist several months ago, in recent days two new medical resignations have been added to the service, leaving only one professional at the head of a department to which, precisely, he was the last to arrive to cover one of the vacant positions.
This lack of professionals, in addition to slowing down patient reports, has forced the Provincial Hospital to refer patients to the 9 d’Octubre hospital in Valencia, a private center, due to the impossibility of carrying out all the tests in the Nuclear Medicine service. This newspaper already reported last December the numerous problems that the area was having, coinciding with the arrival of the new management team led by the manager, Matías Real, who indicated this Thursday that he is looking for replacements for the specialists on sick leave.
The members of the service have sent numerous letters to the manager warning of the continuous problems that have been generated since the appointment of the new medical director, Daniel Flores, who was part of the Nuclear Medicine team and who serves as acting head of service. CCOO reiterated the “seriousness” of the situation due to the “conflict between Nuclear Medicine professionals and management.” “Patients are paying for poor management of the service,” indicates the union.
The last sick leave of a member of the team occurred this Thursday after one of the professionals had to be assisted in the emergency room on Wednesday due to an anxiety crisis due to the numerous problems that Nuclear Medicine is accumulating. Its members sent a final letter these past Christmas holidays in which they insisted on the problems that have persisted since the medical director took office.
“Dr. Flores has assumed two highly complex positions simultaneously, medical director and acting chief, as he has described himself and as you yourself have corroborated on several occasions,” indicates the letter addressed to the manager, which warns that “The organization of the service by the acting boss has consisted of ordering and imposing tasks, without reaching consensus, listening or responding to suggestions from his own former colleagues until 3-4 months ago.”
“Nuclear Medicine accumulated more than 170 unreported files on December 16, according to hospital sources consulted by this newspaper. An accumulation of work that has been aggravated by the lack of personnel since the two specialists who stopped working, one due to sick leave and the other due to the decision to resign from the position, have been joined by two other professionals who have taken lowers it.
Furthermore, as this newspaper reported, this unit has been without a head of service since March since Marcos Tajahuerce, who now works at the IVO, left the position without it being filled by the previous Ministry of Health. And it is the medical director, who was one of the members of the Nuclear Medicine team, who has assumed acting leadership.
Asked about this situation in Nuclear Medicine, the Castellón Provincial Hospital assured this Thursday that it learned of the departure of another doctor from the service but that “care for patients has not been interrupted and will not be interrupted.”
“In the last letter sent by the Nuclear Medicine physicians to the manager of the Provincial Hospital Consortium, Matías Real, they point out some questions about their position as professionals. They are categorical in stating, as a result of the file opened to the four doctors there, that “we do not refuse to work, all of us have extensive work experience, specifically three doctors have more than 20 years of experience and another with at least 10 years, having worked in several public and private hospitals, and with workloads much larger than that of this hospital. In addition, they add, “we have been working in this hospital for several years now, demonstrating our professionalism. Being totally different personalities, with sometimes different ideas about the work, the four doctors have always collaborated in a harmonious way, putting each one’s different ideas on the table and reaching agreements by consensus.”