Osakidetza announces a new OPE with difficult coverage by 2027, which will also include nursing places

The Department of Health of the Basque Government is preparing a new Public Offer of Employment (OPE) of difficult coverage by 2027, which will include for the first time nursing professionals, with the aim of strengthening the staffing of the centres with the greatest difficulties in attracting professionals and maintaining their workforce.

The Health Adviser, Alberto Martínez, and the Director-General of Osakidetza, Lore Bilbao, announced this new call at a hearing in the Health Committee of the Basque Parliament.

Martinez has stressed that the Basque Country currently has "more doctors and nurses than ever", but has advocated the need to continue incorporating more professionals to respond to the rising demand for health care.

The call for 2027 will be the second difficult coverage OPE launched this year by Osakidetza, two offers aimed at strengthening the centres and jobs with the greatest difficulties in attracting professionals, maintaining staff and stabilizing jobs.

OPE 2026 will be convened by the end of the year

Osakidetza is currently negotiating with trade union organizations the difficult 2026 OPE coverageand the call is scheduled for the end of the year.

The offer will focus on those positions that are most difficult to fill in Primary Care, especially Family Medicine,Paediatrics and Psychiatry, and will include, as a novelty, a number of specialties related to county hospitals , due to difficulties in attracting professionals and maintaining jobs, mainly due to evening shifts or the location of the centres.

Among the places to be included is the Andoain Health Center: the four vacancies in the afternoon hours will be included in this OPE.

The call will continue the strategy launched in 2025 to attract, maintain and stabilize the Osakidetza workforce.

36 new operating rooms

The announcement of new job offers coincided with the progress of the Health Infrastructure and Equipment Programme 2025-2032, which envisages an investment of 1.6 billion euros and 74 actions.

One of the main actions will be to increase Osakidetza's surgical capacity. The programme envisages increasing 170 operating rooms and procedures to 206 , with the addition of 36 new classrooms , an increaseof 21.2 per cent.

The new facilities will be distributed to hospitals such as Txagorritxu, Bidasoa, Zumarraga, Tolosa, Basurto, Cruces, Donostia and Galdakao.

The new hospital in Toulouse, for example, will have six operating rooms and 90 beds, while the new surgical block in Zumarraga hospital will have six operating rooms.

More investment in health technology

The programme also provides for EUR 192.6 million for the renovation of health technology and the introduction of new equipment, including 16 TACs, eight MRIs, eight linear accelerators, four PET-TC equipment, six SPECT-TCs, 26 mammographs, 75 X-ray rooms and 16 hemodynamics and angiography rooms.

Among the technological projects is the Protontherapy Unit of the Donostia University Hospital , which, following the completion of the bunker's work, is scheduled to start installing machines in November and the first patient will be treated in early 2028. The planned investment is €61.4 million.

The programme also includes actions to improve the air conditioning and energy efficiency of health centres and envisages an investment of EUR 73.02 million by 2032 .

The Basque Government places these actions within the commitments of the Basque Health Pact , with the aim of strengthening the workforce, improving primary care, increasing hospital capacity and modernising the public health network.