Príncipe de Viana Specialty Center in Pamplona.Europa Press News (Europa Press via Getty Images)
The Government of Navarra has opened files on 11 doctors denounced by the LAB union for improperly charging the exclusivity supplement, a specific bonus received by professionals who only work in the Navarro Health System/Osasunbidea, of at least 800 euros monthly. The professionals indicated by LAB presumably charge this supplement or hold service or section heads —which also disqualifies them from practicing in the private network— and also work in clinics or private practices. At present, the Foral Community is one of the only three that maintain this complement along with Asturias and Galicia, although in the latter it has recently been approved to reduce the salary differences between those who work exclusively in the public sector and those who combine it with the private sector.
The Vice President and Minister of Public Function of the Navarrese Executive, Javier Remírez, has detailed that the Administration “is acting on these complaints and has already opened the corresponding files; right now they are practically completed in the administrative way”. In total, 11 files have been opened, “as many as there have been complaints.” The Executive has thus reacted to the resolution of the Office of Good Practices and Anti-Corruption of Navarra which, after an initial investigation, has determined that there are “reasonable indications of veracity” in the LAB request, which pointed out a possible conflict of interest between what public and private initiative. The head of the union in Navarra, Imanol Karrera, has detailed that some professionals perform leadership functions —getting paid for it—, but without having been officially appointed: “What you see is contracting engineering to enable them to access the headquarters, get paid as bosses, but do not have exclusivity because they are not officially bosses and that way they can work privately”. For LAB, the content of the resolution is “devastating” for the Administration, which it urges to “assume responsibility”. In the opinion of the union, this resolution shows that there are indications that point to malpractice of exclusivity in Osasunbidea, “a fraudulent, generalized and normalized practice.” Hence, LAB demands that those people who by action or omission have contributed to the existence of these practices immediately abandon their responsibilities.
However, it is still early to talk about layoffs, dismissals and resignations because the Office of Good Practices and Anti-Corruption has yet to carry out the formal investigation. For now, it has only verified the existence of indications. In the resolution issued this week, the Office has requested Osasunbidea management to provide it within ten days with a list of the professionals who currently hold leadership positions without formal appointment, “also indicating the professionals who do so under a dedicated exclusive”. It also requests that the documentation include the “declaration of compatibility or incompatibility of the performance of said functions with the private activity that these professionals could carry out”. If there is no such statement, the reasons for it must be stated.
On the part of the Executive, Remírez has assured that they will wait to know the result of the investigations, but has announced that some of the open files “will conclude with the necessary return of amounts improperly received, some of them will also conclude with the authorization of the compatibility between private public activity, even some also with the corresponding opening of disciplinary proceedings”. Meanwhile, he has urged the Navarro Health Service to regularize the appointments of the heads: “The health system will have to regularize the appointments of the corresponding heads so that all of them, all these people, adapt the functions of their position to what that they exercise effectively and also to the corresponding remuneration”.
For the counselor, the opening of the files is a sign of the Government’s explicit commitment to comply with the law and confirms, in the words of Remírez, that work has been done on this issue from the outset —LAB made public the first case in The month of february-. His words clash with those of the Director General of Health, Carlos Artundo, who, at the beginning of May, went so far as to publicly assert that LAB “denounced 10 specific physicians with names and surnames and, as of today, of those 10, eight have not they have nothing to do The complaint has hit the bone because some were already retired and others were on leave of absence from service”. That is to say, he maintained that only in two of those cases would there have been an undue collection of exclusivity.
Therefore, we will have to wait for the results of the investigations. This is the first case in which the Office of Good Practices and Anti-Corruption is working, which was officially launched last March. Its objective is, according to the regional regulations, “to promote and establish measures to prevent, investigate and combat corruption, promote and improve good practices and protect whistleblowers”. Its scope of action is broad, since it covers both public institutions and private entities and individuals.
