US EditionSpain Doctor Strike: What to Expect This Week
Doctors oppose health reform citing risks of staff shortages and increased emigration; non-urgent care delayed while emergency services operate with reduced staff.
- Starting from today, doctors across Spain begin a nationwide four-day strike from December 9 to 12, affecting public hospitals and primary care centres in Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalucia, and the Balearic Islands.
- After almost three years of talks, medical staff rejected the Estatuto Marco reform, demanding a separate statute, better hours, fairer on-call pay, and an end to forced relocations, the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions says.
- Contingency plans require minimum staffing such as 25 percent in some urgent outpatient departments, blood and tissue banks at 60 percent capacity, while emergency and critical services will operate under minimum-service rules.
- Patients are warned that non-urgent care will be delayed or cancelled, and expats should expect prescription and insurance report delays while some seek private clinics.
- In Catalonia, doctors have planned a follow-up strike on January 14th and 15th 2026, while medical unions discuss further action that analysts say may shape the Spanish public health system long term.
23 Articles
23 Articles
The doctors have said enough.From Tuesday, December 9, and until December 12, these professionals will strike to show their rejection of the reform of the Framework Statute that regulates the working conditions of the staff of the National Health System (NSS) proposed by the Ministry of Health.The call comes after three years of negotiations and more than 60 meetings between the Ministry, trade unions and strike committees, without having reache…
More than 100,000 doctors from all over Spain are called from Tuesday until Friday to four days of national strike in protest against the new Framework Staff Statute of the National Health System (SNS) proposed by the Ministry of Health. The protest has been called by the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), the majority, and the Andaluz Medical Union (SMA), to which some others — not all — trade union and professional forces of docto…
They claim a rule of their own that includes shorter working hours, contributions for the retirement of on-call hours or professional reclassification
Associations across the state call for protests and mobilizations, although these differ according to the territory, and will last all week
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