Health reverses course: will withdraw incentives to CAPs to reduce sick leave
The measure had generated rejection among unions and the opposition
BarcelonaU-turn by the Department of Health. The Conselleria will next week withdraw the pilot program that provided incentives for primary care centers (CAPs) to ensure that sick leaves for mental health and musculoskeletal injuries are not excessively prolonged. Two months ago, Health had begun informing CAPs that they would receive more budget if they avoided absences without a diagnosis and delays in the appointments needed to assess a person who is on sick leave and, if they have already recovered, to discharge them.
According to El País, facing a flood of criticism from both unions and parliamentary groups, Olga Pané's conselleria has finally decided that indicators on the duration of sick leaves will not count towards the allocation of funds to CAPs or towards the variable part of doctors' salaries. The Comuns, in fact, had threatened to condition Salvador Illa's budgets on the withdrawal of this controversial pilot program.
A through the X network, the president of Comuns in the Parlament, Jéssica Albiach, has celebrated the Catalan executive's rectification. "They finally admit they were denying reality. Work absences should only respond to medical criteria," she said.
Until now, the Government had defended the measure because it aimed to "avoid sick leave without diagnosis and delays in appointments". According to the Generalitat's argument, "many people are on sick leave for months because the tests [to clear them] take too long". Therefore, they pointed out that if the tests are faster, diagnosis and treatment can arrive sooner and sick leave "lasts as long as it should last". It is necessary to avoid "being five months to get a diagnosis, as happens in some cases of non-urgent conditions", they stressed.
The foreseen incentives that have now been discarded, however, did not affect the base budget that each center receives for its usual activity. They did, however, condition whether or not an additional fund was perceived.