The Ombudsman (in office), Francisco Fernández Marugán, has assured this Tuesday that “the vaccination process is developing in a very positive way” in our country.
During his appearance before the Joint Commission on Relations with the Ombudsman, at the request of the Popular Group “to report on the complaints received regarding the distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 that the Ministry of Health has made among the Autonomous Communities”, Fernández Marugán revealed that the Ombudsman has not received “any complaint” about this distribution.
In addition, he pointed out that he did not find any reason to initiate an ex officio action as he was not aware of any obstacles in the vaccination campaign due to this issue.
As he explained, the distribution of doses among the Autonomous Communities has been carried out “equitably” according to the population corresponding to the vaccination groups defined in each phase of the Vaccination Strategy against COVID-19 in Spain. A strategy that, as he recalled, “was drawn up and approved in early December 2020 by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System”, a collegiate body in which the health ministers of the autonomous communities and cities and the Minister of Health participated, and which has already been updated seven times.
“For the last two months, the rate of vaccination in Spain has been very high, which indicates that the provision of resources by all the administrations is being carried out correctly. The process demonstrates the coordination between the Ministry and the ministries of the autonomous communities and once again, the preparation and commitment of healthcare professionals and the willingness of citizens to be vaccinated,” said the Ombudsman.
In this context, he emphasized “the high number of people already vaccinated” which, according to data from the Ministry of Health as of May 23, already amounts to more than 8 million people who have received the complete regimen and 16,709,939 people who have received at least one dose.
Similarly, Fernández Marugán also highlighted “the significant percentage of doses administered by the Autonomous Communities”, which is above 95%, and the “very high coverage of people living in nursing homes, which is practically 100%”.
Actions of the Ombudsman
Although the Ombudsman has not received complaints about the distribution of vaccines between communities, Fernández Marugán explained that he has taken some actions, ex officio or at the request of citizens, on specific issues related to the vaccination campaign.
Therefore, the Ombudsman has pointed out that, in the early stages of vaccination, the Institution he heads raised an ex officio complaint to the Ministry of Health regarding the vaccination of people over 80 years of age who lived in an autonomous community other than that of their habitual residence, since the Strategy did not specify the place where they would be vaccinated.
The same occurred with citizens of other countries residing in Spain, but who are not registered with the regional health services.
The situation of these groups were clarified on February 26th, when the fourth update of the Strategy was made, which states that the vaccination of all these people will be carried out in the place where they reside.
The Ombudsman also reported that, once the vaccination phase for people over 80 and 70 years of age had begun, complaints were received from beneficiaries of the General State Civil Servant Mutual Society, the Social Institute of the Armed Forces and the General Mutual Insurance Scheme for the Judiciary.
These complaints, mostly from the Community of Madrid, indicated that they did not receive information on whether and when they would be vaccinated in the same way as other older people.
Proceedings were initiated with the regional administration and with the three mutual insurance companies and, to date, this matter seems to have been resolved and the members of the different mutual insurance companies are being vaccinated equitably by the public health services of the Autonomous Communities.
The Ombudsman has also dealt with complaints sent by personnel belonging to essential groups of the General State Administration. This is the case of the lack of vaccination of police and civil guards in Catalonia, unlike the Mossos d’Esquadra and members of the Local Police.
The Ombudsman shared his concern and finally, at the end of April, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia required the Health Department of the Generalitat to vaccinate the members of these groups based in the area, within a period of ten days.
