Private healthcare is in the crosshairs of the Spanish government following the Torrejón de Ardoz Hospital scandalwhere there was allegedly a directive to reject unprofitable patients or procedures in order to lengthen waiting lists and increase profits. The Ministry of Health has expanded the investigation it ordered the High Inspectorate to this center, and it will now also be carried out in the rest of the privately managed hospitals in Madrid belonging to the Quirón Group, which have substantially increased their budgets in recent years.

One in three Catalan doctors works in the private healthcare sector, representing approximately 15,300 professionals. This is according to a survey conducted by the Council of Medical Colleges of Catalonia (CCMC) among private healthcare workers to assess the health of a sector that has been growing in recent years, as the number of people with private health insurance is increasing, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In Catalonia, one in three citizens (34%) currently has private health insurance, according to data from the latest Catalan Health Survey (ESCA) by the Department of Health. Despite the high number of professionals working in private healthcare, more than half (64%) feel they are not treated well by insurance companies due to low salaries, difficulties in negotiating, and impersonal treatment, according to the survey results.

The British public's trust in Downing Street's actions is going down the drain. Meanwhile, citizens across the islands fear an income tax hike in just two weeks that would betray... one of Labour's key election promisesAnd while this could cause a political earthquake, another highly sensitive issue, the NHS, the National Health Service, is still struggling to recover and significantly reduce waiting lists. In July, 7.41 million patients, only 200,000 fewer than a year earlier, were still waiting for treatment. The five-day strike that resident doctors in English hospitals—both in emergency and non-emergency care—are starting this Friday will not improve the situation either. And one of the consequences of these delays is that last year, more than half a million residents of the islands (523,000, according to the Office for National Statistics) traveled abroad for medical treatment. This figure represents a 50.1% increase in just two years.