Demandas y reivindicaciones de los médicos conquenses durante la epidemia de gripe en España, 1918-1919

During the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic, Spanish physicians were in a professional renewal based on the belief that their working conditions had significantly diminished. The aim of this paper is to analyze the demands of Cuenca physicians in order to assess if their claims were similar to those which were taking place in the capital of the country. For this purpose, news appeared in La Información Médica journal, the bulletin of the Medical College of Cuenca (Spain), were selected. The methodology used is the bulletin's discursive content analysis on the premise that the study of the context was relevant. Cuenca medical elite was not influenced by the Madrid medical interests despite the centralized state structure and geographical proximity. The demands in Cuenca depended on the social, economic and health situation in the province, and were conditioned by the cacique's influence. A strong social criticism of conventional medicine was taking place at that moment