THE WAYPOINT SUR
New tune, same as the old tune.
We’ve been here before
Sunday marks the start of the third round of doctor strikes in Andalucia this year. April 27 through 30, called by the Confederación Estatal de Sindicatos Médicos — national confederation of medical unions (CESM) and the Sindicato Médico Andaluz — Andalusian medical union (SMA).
The format is the same as February and March. Primary care has been reduced. Hospital outpatient appointments cancelled or rescheduled. Emergency care, dialysis, and oncology at full capacity. One doctor per centro de salud — health centre on minimum duty.
The difference this time: you probably don't need us to explain the mechanics. You've already rescheduled once or twice. The Cita Sanitaria app is familiar by now. You know which appointments can wait and which can't.
That adaptation is worth paying attention to.
The calendar is the story
This isn't a strike. It's a schedule.
February 16-20. March 16-20. April 27-30. May 18-22 is confirmed. June 15-19 is confirmed. One week per month, every month, through the start of summer.
The dispute is over the Estatuto Marco — the national healthcare workforce framework — that doctors' unions rejected in January. The April 13 negotiation meeting produced nothing. The union and the Ministerio de Sanidad — Ministry of Health — are not close to a resolution.
Five months of planned disruption is not a labour action. It's the operating rhythm of the public healthcare system through summer 2026. If you're on the SAS, this is the service level you're planning around.
What we’ve already started doing
After three rounds, the pattern is visible. Readers have told us they're doing some version of the same things.
Filling prescriptions early. If you take regular medication, you've learned to collect your repeat prescription the week before a strike, not the week of. The Centro de Salud pharmacy window operates with minimal staff during strikes. Early collection avoids the queue or the closure.
Booking private for the weeks that matter. Specialist referrals, follow-up consultations, and anything where timing affects the outcome. If the public appointment falls in a strike week, some readers are paying the EUR 80-150 private consultation fee to keep to the schedule rather than waiting for the rebook. Monday's newsletter covered how to think about the private/public balance. The strikes are where that balance becomes practical.
Checking the app, not the news. The Cita Sanitaria app shows whether your specific appointment is affected. SMS and email notifications are sent by the SAS — Servicio Andaluz de Salud (Andalusian Health Service). If you don't receive a cancellation notice, attend as normal.
Holding non-urgent requests. The GP visit that isn't time-sensitive, the blood test that can flex by a week, the referral request that starts a queue anyway. Readers are learning to time these for inter-strike windows. The next clear window after this round: May 1-17, before the May 18-22 round.
The quiet part
Here's what none of the strike coverage says out loud.
The government has decided that the cost of the strikes is acceptable. Five rounds scheduled. No movement at the table. The Ministry is absorbing the cancelled appointments, the rescheduled procedures, and the reader's frustration rather than meeting the union's demands for a separate medical statute. That's a position, not an absence of one.
And you've decided the cost is acceptable, too. Three rounds in, and nobody is leaving the Costa del Sol over the strikes.
The system is worse than advertised, and the alternative, moving somewhere with uninterrupted healthcare access, isn't attractive enough to justify the disruption of leaving. So you adapt. You build your own continuity plan around the schedule, and you stop treating each round as a surprise.
That's not cynicism. It's the honest maths of life on the Costa. The healthcare works. It works intermittently. And you've factored the intermittence into your planning.
This week specifically
Sunday, April 27, through Wednesday, April 30. Four days instead of the usual five (May 1 is a national holiday, Día del Trabajo — Labour Day).
Protected services: Emergency care at 100%. Dialysis and predetermined oncology at 100%. Primary care on minimum coverage (one doctor per centro de salud — health centre in Andalucia).
Your appointments: If you have a scheduled consultation between April 27 and 30, check the Cita Sanitaria app or wait for an SMS/email from SAS. No notification means attend as normal.
Prescriptions: Collect before the weekend if you're due a refill. Don't wait until Monday.
Next round: May 18-22. Clear window between rounds: May 1-17 (with May 1 itself being a public holiday, so effectively May 2-17 for non-urgent bookings).
Spanish-lite
One phrase you might use at the centro de salud this week:
"¿Mi cita del lunes sigue en pie o la han cambiado por la huelga?" — Is my Monday appointment still on or has it been changed because of the strike?
And if they've moved it:
"¿Cuándo es la primera cita disponible después de la huelga?" — When is the first available appointment after the strike?
The bottom line
The third round starts Sunday. The fourth is in May. The fifth is in June. The negotiation hasn't moved since January, and neither side appears close to giving ground.
You've been through this twice already, and you've built your own workarounds: early prescriptions, private backup for time-sensitive consultations, inter-strike booking windows. The fact that you have a personal strike protocol tells you what the public system actually delivers right now. Not a crisis. Not a collapse. Scheduled, recurring, manageable intermittence. Plan around it.
Nearly there — A. and the fully vaccinated WaypointSur team
