By David Jackson
There are fewer paediatricians working in the province than stipulated by law, according to a parliamentary complaint sent this week by the right wing Partido Popular (PP) party to the regional government.
State laws rule that any child under the age of 14 has the right to be attended to by a paediatrician, instead of a general doctor (GP). The regional health service (SAS) has the target of providing one paediatrician for every thousand children, but Almería falls far short of that target.
There are more than 120,000 children living in the province, meaning there should be at least 120 paediatric posts. But the PP claims there are only 88 paediatricians working in the public health service. And according to the same complaint, only 37 of those doctors are trained paediatricians, with the rest being ordinary doctors who have been reassigned to paediatric care.
