Health Department sets minimum services for the Canary Islands Health Service for the November 11 strike

The Official Gazette of the Canary Islands publishes this Tuesday, in issue 224 of November 10, 2026, the Order of November 6, 2026, from the Regional Ministry of Health, which establishes the minimum services to be provided by personnel assigned to the Canary Health Service during the general strike of November 11, 2026. The regulation, signed by Minister Esther María Monzón Monzón and registered under number 3879, mandates the maintenance of 100% of urgent healthcare and critical activity in oncology, dialysis, and day hospitals.

Legal Framework and Timeframe

The order is issued under Decree 24/1987, of March 13, which conditions the exercise of the right to strike in the regional administration on the maintenance of essential services, and Article 28.2 of the Spanish Constitution, which reserves the guarantees to ensure those services to the law. The Ministry also invokes Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of October 30, which recognizes the right to strike for public employees with that same guarantee.

The timeframe covers the full day, from 00:00 to 24:00 hours on November 11, 2026. In centers with multiple shifts, the count begins with the first, even if it starts before midnight, and concludes at the end of the last, even if it extends beyond.

According to the file, the department received communications from various trade union organizations and held hearings with the strike committees, concluding the processing on November 6, 2026. The call is signed, among other centers, by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the Intersindical Confederation, CCOO-UGT, the National Confederation of Labor (CNT), COBAS, and Intersindical Canaria.

Primary Care and Emergencies

The text guarantees 100% of the staff in Extra-hospital Emergency Services during the shift in which the service is usually provided, as well as urgent outpatient and home care, including pharmaceutical prescriptions.

In Primary Care Teams, it is generally established that one staff member of each professional category will be present, who will preferentially attend to emergencies. This staffing is increased according to the assigned population:

• Between 10,000 and 30,000 users: 1 additional Family Doctor and 1 additional Nurse.
• More than 30,000 users: 2 additional Family Doctors and 2 additional Nurses.

Specialized Care and Critical Activity

At the specialized level, minimum services are equivalent to those planned for Sundays and holidays, with reinforcements in areas of higher clinical risk. The indispensable number of staff is required to guarantee 100% of the activity in Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Dialysis, Day Hospital, and Hospital Pharmacy.

Scheduled surgical interventions for oncology patients or those with a high suspicion of oncological pathology, as well as other pathologies that cannot be delayed due to the risk they would pose to the patient, are also maintained at 100%. In the central services—laboratory, radiology, pathological anatomy, and nuclear medicine—urgent or non-delayable tests and those necessary for staging and continuity of treatment are ensured.

The order covers the Primary Care managements of Gran Canaria and Tenerife; the Dr. Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria, the Insular/Materno-Infantil University Hospital Complex, the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital Complex, and the University Hospital of the Canary Islands; and the health managements of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro.

Health areas and central services

In the Health Area Directorates of the seven islands, food and environmental alerts, slaughterhouse veterinarians, and patient transport are maintained with the indispensable staff. In the central services, the following are preserved:

• Directorate of the Canary Health Service: pharmaceutical alert.
• General Secretariat: communications and maintenance of corporate applications.
• General Directorate of Public Health: epidemiological alert, food alert, and mortuary sanitary police.
• General Directorate of Care Programs: transplant coordination.
• General Directorate of Human Resources: relations with trade union organizations.
• General Directorate of Blood Donation and Hemotherapy: extraction, production, and distribution of blood products.

Each manager, area director, or head of a directing center must establish the nominal list of affected personnel and notify the interested parties. A contentious-administrative appeal may be filed against the order within two months and, optionally, a request for reversal before the Ministry in the month following its publication.

The decision directly affects patients and all healthcare personnel in the archipelago: it specifies which appointments, tests, and surgeries are maintained and who is required to report to their post during a state-wide general strike day.

Source: Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, no. 224, November 10, 2026, section III. Other Resolutions, pp. 40672-40677 (official reference: no. 3879).