The Parliament demands from the State the transfer of ownership of hospitals and CAPs in Catalonia

BarcelonaThe Parliament demands "immediately" the transfer to the Generalitat of the properties and health facilities located in Catalonia that continue to be state-owned. The motion, promoted by ERC and approved with the votes of all groups except Vox and the PP, which voted against it, gives the Catalan executive a maximum of six months to prepare and present a fully updated inventory of all properties of the Generalitat's health system that are not its own. The report must specify the legal status, the registry status, the estimated asset value, the net book value of the assets, and the investments made by the Catalan administration.

Within the same six-month period, the Government must present a report on the economic, asset, and financial impact resulting from the lack of ownership of these properties, including an economic estimate of the investments assumed by the Generalitat in these centers. As published by ARA in May, practically all the large public hospitals of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) and the historic primary care centers (CAP) are assigned to the Generalitat. However, a paradox exists: in many cases, ownership does not belong to the Catalan government, but to the General Treasury of Social Security (TGSS). This situation forces the Generalitat to assume the costs of maintenance, reforms, and investments of facilities for which it has management, but not ownership.

"An asset and management anomaly"

For this reason, the resolution openly qualifies the current situation as "a patrimonial and management anomaly". In this regard, the republicans assure that "it is completely unjustified that the State retains ownership of properties that the Generalitat has maintained and financed for more than forty years". The approved text focuses on the administrative surcharges that the Generalitat has had to bear for decades every time works of expansion, structural improvements, or technological modernization plans had to be processed in buildings that technically belong to the State administration.

The report required by Parliament will have to meticulously calculate what economic compensation resources will be necessary to ensure that the effective transfer of these assets does not translate into a financial imbalance or a burden for the coffers of the Generalitat. The motion formally urges the Catalan executive to include in the negotiation package with the State the total forgiveness of the debt that Catalan health institutions incurred with the TGSS in the early stages of service transfer. Finally, to ensure that this resolution does not remain a dead letter, the chamber has safeguarded a political control mechanism. The Government will be obliged to appear and report semiannually before the Commission of Institutional Affairs of Parliament to provide detailed accounts on the real state of bilateral negotiations with Madrid and the legal or administrative steps taken to ensure that Catalan hospitals are under the administration that finances them.