Overview
- Coordinators from a dozen hospital emergency departments issued a joint communiqué citing up to a 30% rise in attendances versus pre‑pandemic peaks and a shortage of professionals.
- They report blocked transfers to inpatient wards that leave patients on stretchers in corridors, including 41 severe cases treated in access areas at Santiago’s complex on January 9.
- The Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES) endorsed the communiqué and voiced support for the coordinators’ demands.
- PSdeG filed parliamentary initiatives seeking an urgent, budgeted plan and explanations from the Xunta, pointing to rescheduled non‑urgent surgeries in Pontevedra and daily stoppages in Vigo.
- The regional health minister said on January 8 the system was functioning normally, a position now contested as clinicians warn of exhaustion, self‑covered shifts and the absence of Emergency Medicine residents.