“Salud Responde should be open to the public”

José Ignacio García Sánchez, spokesman for Adelante Andalucía’s Andalusian Parliament, is fiercely critical of the situation of Salud Responde workers and believes their conditions will improve if the service returns to the public. Likewise, he feels that Jaén still lacks the confidence to get past his main problem: railroad disconnection. Also in this interview with Diario JAÉN, he finds the funding model of the University of Jaén unfair and proposes some alternatives for its improvement. He is also committed to broadening the academic offering with the application of his Agricultural Engineering degree, an initiative that will soon be championed in the Andalusian Parliament, where he takes over from Teresa Rodríguez as spokesperson for the group that values ​​being one. from a few politicians representing a segment of the population that has never been represented

— How was your debut in Parliament as spokesperson for Adelante Andalucía?

—Teresa Rodríguez did something very unusual in politics, she kept her word. He returned to his post after eight years of public service, but continues as party leader, our spokesperson. I’m in charge of some of his duties as spokesperson in the Andalusian Parliament. Now we visit all provinces, we were in Malaga and our second visit was to Jaen.

—You talked to the Jaén University Defense Platform, what did they tell you?

We were already aware of your concern and somehow got the feeling that the Andalucía Junta Government had killed the University of Jaén. It is unacceptable that it is the worst-funded university of all universities in Andalusia, with serious consequences, because the university is not only a source of revival for young people to study, but also for the province.

—Is it related to the current model or has UJA already dragged on insufficient funding from previous years?

—It’s been going on for years. The board is planning to kill public universities because it thinks it’s too many, what it doesn’t say is the second part of the sentence, namely that there are few private universities. This is what they really want. A university like the one in Jaén is essential to the state because of its proximity and the study of its young people, but at the same time, who would study Jaén’s legacy if it weren’t? Who will think about how to build a more social economy and better distribute wealth in the province, if not in Jaén? Or who will propose to increase the productivity of the Jaén agri-food industry? If it’s not done at the University of Jaén, no one will. There are things that are incomprehensible and we condemn it. No one can understand that you cannot study Agricultural Engineering in the world’s most oil-producing province. This only happens because someone who doesn’t care about the development of the state of Jaén thinks so, and this is a proposal we will urgently take to the regional Parliament.

—What formula will be followed?

—Which is to be seen on the initiative of the parliament, but depends on the will of the Government, which can approve it by decree. We will try to force the Board of Directors to do so.

—In addition to this private initiative. What will Adelante Andalucía do in Parliament to reverse the underfunding of the University of Jaén?

—On the one hand, the expansion of qualities that we will try to be useful to the social majority of Jaén. In addition, the funding model should be reversed, as the funding model proposed by the People’s Party is mercantilist and seeks to provide better funding for universities, which is most beneficial for large corporations. We want to reverse this system. The financing of state universities should be made in a way that contributes to the social development of the people of the region where they are located. Velasco’s model must be paralyzed and a fairer alternative must be found. If they want to establish a private university in Andalusia, of course, they will find us face to face.

— You accompanied the Salud Responde workers, what is your problem?

—Most Andalusians don’t know that every time you call Salud Responde, which provides multi-channel access to the Andalusian public health system, an employee from Jaén answers. These workers are essential to the functioning of the public health system, they provide an invaluable service, and they do so in a private company that is ranked at the expense of people’s right to health and also pays a miserable salary. their employees. Most of the employees are part-time where they earn less than 1,000 euros, most even around 500 euros per month and no job stability. We are talking about a workforce that reaches 500 workers at certain times, so the public needs to know this. This is a labor issue but also a public health issue.

—Do you think returning to public life is the best solution?

—The service must be saved. The ability of workers to work is essential for public health, so they must be public employees. The only reason they are private workers is that they set up a company, so the unfair advantage must be eliminated.

— Could this alone motivate an administration to privatize such a public service?

— I expect one of the privatization politicians who took part not only in the People’s Party, but also in the socialist ranks, to present a different and real justification. Does anyone argue that Salud Responde works better because it’s private? No. Who would argue that school canteens work better because they are private? No. Who would argue that the cleanliness of our public centers and hospitals is better because they have been privatized? No, that’s not true. What they’re doing is dividing the public for a private benefit.

—Have you ever been to the state of Jaen? Do you know him?

—Of course I’ve been to the capital city of Jaén many times, and I know La Carolina and Andújar too. Actually, there is an anecdote. I am a secondary school teacher and when I applied for competitive exams for the first time, I went to court in Jaén, which I loved so much because I had a good experience. Anyone who’s been through an opposition knows what that is, and I felt very welcome.

—A few days ago, the Primary Care doctors went on strike. Do you think he is right?

-Of course, yes, they created the image of Moreno Bonilla as good people, and this is the strategy the People’s Party aimed to displace the Andalusian president figure from Ayuso’s in order to make one good cop and the other bad. They wanted us to believe it, but you are not a good person when you remove the wealth tax on the 0.1% of the wealthiest Andalusian population and then tell us that there is no resource to hire health workers permanently. No, obviously something is wrong. A few days ago, Minister of Health and Consumption Catalina García had the luxury of saying that no toilets in Andalusia have been rented for less than six months. Anyone who knows someone or has been to a health center knows that there are contracts for up to a week. The strike of Primary Care doctors is normal and even all citizens should mobilize to reverse the public health situation.

—There are two projects, one of which is practical, for the construction of two private hospitals in the province. How do you evaluate Adelante de Andalucía?

—Jaén is a paradigmatic example, a public hospital called El Neveral was closed and two private hospitals opened. This is the People’s Party model that the socialists have already started, but now they seem to have stepped on the accelerator.

—Is the Juanma Moreno Government moving towards the privatization of the healthcare system?

—Of course, and that’s something that can already be seen. More and more patients are referred to private health institutions for both diagnostic tests and other issues. Instead of investing in public health, work that is a human right, which is nothing but health, is done. In addition, the service suffers because those who cannot receive private health care are pushed into dishonest care.

—What problems does Jaén particularly have?

—The rise in food prices worries me a lot. Food is 17% more expensive for a year, which means there are families who can’t eat fruit and vegetables every week. Thousands of families can’t taste it in the world’s largest olive oil producing province, and it’s the fault of these big distributors and those who make a living by feeding our families. The second is the disconnection of the railroad. Over the last 30 years, more than 90% of trains passing through Jaén have disappeared, making it a way station and this is something designed from an office in Madrid. There is no connection to Granada or Almería, and no suburban network either, which dooms Jaén to be a regionally disjointed state. In Adelante Andalucía, we believe that all municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants should have a suburban connection.

—For Adelante Andalucía, where does the solution to your problems come from?

—People need empowerment, collective self-esteem is needed. We believe and are aware that the world would not function without ordinary people who get up at seven in the morning every day. Nothing works without workers and we have to believe it. We should also be aware of the fact that if we do not get up and hit the table and say that it is not enough to always guide unemployment, insecurity and migration data, we will continue in the tail of development. It only works for the rich and powerful who are miles from here.

—How do you evaluate Teresa Rodríguez’s work as the Speaker of the Andalusian Parliament?

—Teresa Rodríguez has managed to do something in Andalusian politics that no one else has done in recent years, namely to represent all people who feel that they are not represented in ordinary politics. He opened the doors and windows of the Parliament to bring the demands, pains and dreams of millions of Andalusians who did not keep his word.