In Catalonia, there are many healthcare centers and a growing number of patients requiring medical attention, but at the same time, there is a shortage of doctors, which could ultimately jeopardize the sustainability of the healthcare system as we know it. The progressive aging of the population will increase chronic illness, dependency, and frailty in the coming years. For example, by 2050, the number of centenarians will increase fivefold, and there will be almost twice as many people over 75. To address the demographic and healthcare challenges of the future, the Committee for Evaluation, Innovation, and Operational Reform of the Health System (Cairos)—the group of experts advising the Department of Health on transforming the foundations of the healthcare system—proposes a "radical change": on the one hand, it proposes dividing Catalonia into thirty distinct health areas; on the other, it proposes promoting networking among healthcare professionals across different centers within the same area. Currently, Catalonia has 68 acute care hospitals, while other regions with similar populations, such as Andalusia and Madrid, have 34 and 32 respectively. In addition to these hospitals, there are also primary care centers (CAPs), day hospitals, sexual and reproductive health care units (ASSIR), and nursing homes, among other facilities that provide social and healthcare services to the public. "We have a hospital every 25 kilometers. It's a good model, but it's difficult to maintain because it's hard to fill all the positions," admit sources at the Catalan Health Department (Salut), who argue that an "organizational effort" is necessary to guarantee its operation. Therefore, they are proposing a new healthcare map divided into thirty integrated health areas (AIS), which will act as umbrella organizations for all the centers in the area to strengthen collaboration between different facilities, avoid duplication, and minimize the shortage of professionals. For example, if an integrated health area includes two hospitals, they will not have to compete to hire a surgeon. Instead, this professional will be hired to perform operations at both centers, depending on patient needs. The same will apply to home care: instead of having one team from the hospital, another from the primary care center (CAP), and another from the nursing home providing home care, there will be only one team responsible for visiting the homes of all patients who need home care within an integrated health area.

At the beginning of the legislative period, Salvador Illa's government created the Committee for Evaluation, Innovation, and Operational Reform of the Health System (Cairos) with the task of rethinking the health system for the future. During this time, it has promoted several pilot projects, such as the new Comprehensive Reference Health Centers (CSIR), which are a new model of primary care designed to replace the CAP, or a plan to collect dependency aid in less than two months (Currently, the wait is over a year). The Department of Health's goal is to evaluate these initiatives and, if they work, gradually extend them to the entire system. According to ARA, another of the reforms Cairos is working on is the creation of a shared financing model between primary care and hospitals, which, above all, aims to eliminate unnecessary referrals.

The opportunity to spend a few years in the land of the pharaohs doesn't come along often, so when it presented itself in 2022 to Alba Ruiz, a 34-year-old teacher from Mataró, and her husband, with whom they had just had a child, they decided to take advantage of it. He had been offered the option of temporarily moving to Egypt for work, and she requested a leave of absence from the school where she had been working for eight years, San José in her hometown, so she could travel. "It was now or never," she explains.