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Doctors at 14 Madrid hospitals will stop doing overtime from June
The conflict between doctors and the Health Department is entering a phase that may be felt directly in Madrid's hospitals. From 1 June, specialists from at least 27 departments in 14 public hospitals will stop doing overtime, known as peonadas, in protest at their working conditions.
The measure began to take shape in the Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation Department at Hospital 12 de Octubre, where more than 80% of anaesthetists announced that they would stop undertaking voluntary additional work. Other teams and centres have since joined in, turning a departmental protest into a broader showdown within Madrid's public healthcare system.
The impact could be significant because those extra hours support part of the activity that makes it possible to reduce waiting lists, particularly in surgery. If specialists stop operating outside their normal working hours, some hospitals could face greater difficulty in maintaining the pace of scheduled procedures and high-demand consultations.
Doctors are calling for several improvements: restoring the 35-hour working week, raising basic pay, increasing on-call pay and reducing temporary employment. They are also asking for a dedicated negotiating table for physicians and progress towards a model in which on-call shifts are voluntary within five years.
The regional department's latest proposal to improve on-call pay has not convinced the Amyts union or the professionals taking action. Doctors maintain that the increase is insufficient and that Madrid still lags behind other regions where some demands have already been restored or are further advanced.
From the Regional Health Department, Fátima Matute has placed part of the problem within the national framework and pointed to the Ministry of Health, considering that several demands require changes nationwide. The specialists, however, insist that the Community has room to improve conditions and stop relying on extra hours to sustain structural activity.
The word peonada may sound technical, but for many patients it translates into something very specific: an operation that comes sooner, an appointment that is not postponed or a waiting list that does not grow as much. That is why this protest will not remain inside offices or hospital departments. If there is no agreement, doctors' discontent may end up showing its strength precisely where it hurts Madrid healthcare most: in waiting times and in the real capacity to provide care in time.