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The Spanish Ombudsman will open an ex officio action requesting urgent measures to address the shortcomings in primary care in the public health service

The Spanish Ombudsman will open an ex officio action requesting urgent measures to address the shortcomings in primary care in the public health service

12-22-2022

The Spanish Ombudsman will open an ex officio action in all autonomous communities, requesting urgent measures to address existing shortcomings in Primary Care, which hinder citizens’ access to this essential health service.

The institution is concerned about the situation in primary care due to the lack of doctors in health centres and outpatient clinics and the working conditions of health professionals.

The Ombudsman, therefore, calls on regional administrations to undertake the necessary reforms to strengthen the public health system and guarantee compliance with this right, enshrined in Article 43 of the Constitution, which states that “it is the responsibility of the public authorities to organise and protect public health through preventive measures and the necessary benefits and services”.

The institution reminds us that it is necessary to strengthen the primary care centres and the technical and organisational resources to solving the underfunding problems of this level of care. It points out that precariousness and seasonality are among the structural issues many health workers face. All this leads to gaps in care, delays in receiving care, and, in short, difficulties in accessing public health services.

Public health users in numerous autonomous communities suffer from these shortcomings. However, the institution receives the most significant complaints from the Community of Madrid. The Ombudsman is going to address all of them, in this ex officio action, in order, in addition to requesting the adoption of urgent measures, to ask them, among other things, for information on existing staffing levels in Primary Care over the last two years, available resources, the average pay of health personnel, and data on the average time patients have to wait to be attended to and the average time spent on them.

In addition to concerns about the situation in primary care, the Ombudsman draws attention to out-of-hospital emergency services where, as in the case of the Community of Madrid, they are either not provided or in centres that have reopened after the pandemic, there are not enough doctors, nurses and orderlies staff these. This situation leads to referrals to hospital emergency departments and consequent overcrowding of this service.

In recent weeks, the institution has received numerous complaints from health professionals about their working conditions and the tremendous pressure they are under, which, they say, “is detrimental to quality and safe care”.

Recently, the Ombudsman’s Office has made recommendations to various autonomous communities to request reinforcements in staffing levels across multiple health centres and Servicio de Urgencia de Atención Primaria [Primary Care Emergency Services] (SUAP).


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