The Health Service has updated the categories with a deficit to fifteen after analysing the applications for the stabilisation process. The documentation submitted by the more than 6,000 applicants for the 2,300 medical and nursing posts in this call for applications means that the majority of the fifty categories can be filled with professionals with the required level of Catalan.

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The Health Service

The Government thus maintains its commitment to users, who will be able to be attended to in their own language, as it has always defended, and to public service, by allowing staff without the required knowledge of Catalan to work in the categories where there is a shortage.

After analysing the applications of 5,956 people received for the categories of medicine and nursing in the stabilisation process of the Balearic Islands Health Service, the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs has been able to determine that in only fifteen of the fifty categories declared in deficit, the applicants with the required level of Catalan are not sufficient to cover the vacancies offered.

While initially around fifty categories of doctors and nurses were declared to be in deficit because the vacancies had been exhausted and there were no personnel available, now, as a result of the applications that have been submitted for the stabilisation process, it has been possible to determine more precisely in which specific categories the vacancies cannot be filled with applicants who can accredit the required knowledge of the Catalan language. In this way, it is also possible to know the current state of the public health system with respect to the knowledge of one’s own language in order to guarantee the rights of users to address the staff of the public administration in their own language. Thus, the cross-referencing of the data after the application process ended last week shows that more than half of the applicants meet the requirements, the result of everyone’s work to make progress in language training for healthcare staff.

The Health Service convened the process of stabilisation of its staff and declared which categories were in deficit and which were not, based on the vacancies that existed at that time. With this criterion, it was defined that all the categories made up of doctors and nurses were in deficit (half of the hundred or so categories called – some 2,283 jobs out of the 4,115 offered) because the vacancies had been exhausted and this made it difficult to fill the vacancies. Now, once the deadline for submitting applications to the call for applications has closed, the Regional Ministry has a new element that determines whether a category has a shortage or not: the applications that have been submitted. This element makes it possible to determine that there are only fifteen categories with a deficit out of the fifty or so that were initially exempted.

In order to gain access to posts in the deficit categories, knowledge of the Catalan language will not be a requirement, as stipulated in the legislation, but staff who gain access will be obliged to know both official languages. To guarantee this, the government will not only provide linguistic support to improve the language skills of incoming staff, but will also establish mechanisms such as making future job mobility conditional on obtaining the appropriate language proficiency certificate.

In view of the applications submitted, most of the categories and posts will be guaranteed to be filled with the established linguistic requirements, and will not be exempt from accreditation of knowledge of the Catalan language, and, as stipulated in the legislation, a period of two years will be established for new staff to accredit their knowledge, in the same way as is done for the rest of the posts offered in the stabilisation process that do not affect doctors and nurses, which are another two thousand posts with more than twenty thousand applicants.

Thus, on the basis of the degree of knowledge of the Catalan language of the applications submitted, the linguistic requirements may be applied to more than 80 % of the posts that were initially exempted without jeopardising their coverage. In this way, it will be possible to guarantee that the places will be filled.

The Government reiterates its commitment to users, to public health and to respect for the rights related to the use of the official languages on the islands. It also insists that Catalan is a requirement for access to the civil service, as it is non-negotiable to guarantee the rights of users to be attended to in their own language. The problem of the shortage of professionals is common to the whole of Spain. Catalan is not a problem for attracting health professionals. On the contrary, more and more professionals are acquiring the necessary knowledge thanks to the training that has been carried out in recent years. Proof of this is the increase in the number of professionals who have already accredited their knowledge in this call for applications, as can be seen once the presentation and review of applications has been completed.

The Govern once again thanks the whole of society and social movements for their continuous drive to guarantee the Catalan language in the civil service and, with it, the right of citizens to be attended to in their own language.