Doctors and specialists in the Valencian Community, Madrid and Catalonia began a strike, in the form of work stoppages, on Wednesday 28 October, according to À Punt. They are demanding better working conditions from their regional authorities. Stoppages began as early as 16 October in some regions, and Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia are due to join in November. Five autonomous communities are involved in total.
The Sindicato Médico Avanza posted on social media that it is maintaining an indefinite strike in the Valencian Community from 28 October. Avanza was founded in the region in 2023. It is an independent professional union and belongs to the Unión Médica y Facultativa (UMYF), a national confederation set up in 2026 to coordinate nationwide demands. Its demands are addressed to the regional health department (Conselleria de Sanidad): better-paid on-call shifts (guardias), more staff and shifts of no more than 12 hours. The union says these measures depend directly on the Conselleria.
According to Avanza, the strike has been called for every day, but the push for maximum turnout will be concentrated from Wednesday to Friday. The union says Monday and Tuesday are needed to limit financial losses and recover. The source does not say which hospitals and health centres are affected, or whether minimum services have been set.
The regional action is separate from the indefinite nationwide doctors' strike that the unions CESM, SMA and SME had announced. That national strike has been called off (postponed). The unions had spent months protesting against the draft estatuto marco (framework statute), agreed by the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad) with the sector's largest unions, including CCOO and UGT. The national strike was postponed because the early elections left the estatuto marco text without effect, and until a new government is formed there is nobody to negotiate with.
The CESM-CV union does not back the regional strike. It calls the action "useless and harmful", says the demands cannot be achieved at regional level and accuses the organisers of creating an artificial conflict. CESM-CV points out that it signed an agreement with the Conselleria de Sanidad, headed by Marciano Gómez, at the end of July. According to the union, the deal provides for a 35-hour working week from Monday to Friday, limits on appointments in primary care, staffing levels matched to need, and measures on on-call shifts and working conditions.
CESM-CV says the regional authorities have officially confirmed the 35-hour week from 1 January 2027, equivalent to 1,512 hours a year. It says the Dirección General de Personal (the regional directorate-general for personnel) has told health centres to adapt their 2027 rotas and calendars once the change to Decreto 137/2003 has been agreed in the health sector committee (mesa sectorial de Sanidad). The source contains no confirmation from the Conselleria itself, and no response from it to the strike.
