Catalonia's health minister, Olga Pané, met the doctors' union Metges de Catalunya (MC) on Thursday to discuss the dispute behind an indefinite strike due to begin on 28 October. The union said the meeting eased tensions but was not a formal negotiation, and it has not withdrawn the strike call.

For patients awaiting planned surgery, MC says its campaign against extra work has already coincided with fewer operations and longer waiting lists. The union says 33,936 operations were carried out in July 2026, 2,940 fewer than in July 2025, a fall of 8%.

The meeting was the first between Pané and the doctors-only union since the current mobilisation cycle began in October 2025. Catalan doctors are also joining nationwide union action against proposed changes to Spain's estatuto marco, the national framework setting minimum employment conditions for public health staff.

"There is no formal negotiation, but it has helped to ease the situation a little," Ramon Sarrias, MC's finance secretary and a participant in the meeting, told El Món.

24-hour shifts and a separate negotiating framework

MC wants a dedicated negotiating framework for doctors, with decision-making powers over issues it says affect medical staff specifically. The Catalan health department has proposed dealing with subjects separately, beginning with 24-hour on-call shifts.

The union's general secretary, Xavier Lleonart, said such shifts were introduced to maintain continuous care when demand was lower. He said emergency departments now face much greater pressure, which the union argues makes the old model unsuitable.

MC says doctors' extra work supports 30% of Catalonia's surgical activity. Its refusal campaign, called Ni un minut més, has involved doctors declining overtime, and the union links the resulting reduction in operating activity to growing waiting lists.

  • Operations in July 2026: 33,936
  • Operations in July 2025: 36,876
  • Year-on-year reduction claimed by MC: 2,940 operations, or 8%

MC previously said that 38 hospital services would stop working extra hours as part of the campaign, according to Agència Catalana de Notícies.

No date set for a further meeting

Pané was reported to be willing to examine an arrangement similar to that at Hospital del Mar, where doctors negotiate certain matters separately before they proceed to the wider negotiating table. MC says that would be a starting point, but not the broader framework it is seeking.

The union says it also wants to address arrangements under which doctors may be employed by one hospital but required to work at another, particularly where the health service struggles to staff smaller or more remote hospitals.

"We need a gesture, but there are many difficulties. We have been badly treated for many years and we are still too far apart," MC said.

No date has been agreed for another meeting. The 28 October indefinite strike remains scheduled to go ahead.

Reported by elmon.cat, Agència Catalana de Notícies (ACN), El Món.