The Minister of Health on Madrid: "manipulating waiting lists by deceiving patients is not new"

BarcelonaNew controversy in the Madrid public health system, stifled by years of cuts and privatizations. Officials at one of the Spanish capital's major hospitals, the Ramón y Cajal, ordered the downgrading of the severity of about sixty patients awaiting surgery last year to improve the status of waiting lists, according to internal documents that have been accessed by El País. According to information published by the newspaper this Tuesday, two heads of the center made changes to the priority of the operations without assessing the affected patients or consulting the surgeons who had determined the severity of the cases.

Always according to this newspaper, which cites an email sent by one of the two officials to a doctor outraged by the events, the motive for the modifications was to meet the productivity targets required by the regional Department of Health, governed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso's PP. The hospital maintains that it has not committed any irregularity, and sources from the department consulted by the Efe agency have denied interference in the waiting lists. In turn, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has accused Ayuso's government of "manipulating" the lists and "deceiving surgeons and patients." "You don't play with patients' health," she stressed via X, while also admitting that the facts reported this Tuesday are not new and that, for the moment, they are not "penalized".

All in all, according to El País, it took place between February 28 and March 14 of last year, when 57 patients waiting for orthopedic and trauma surgeries at the Ramón y Cajal hospital were moved from the preferred priority –which requires that they be operated on within 90 days– to the normal one, which extends the margin for the operation to 180 days, in order to comply with the set deadline. A milestone that, moreover, affects the productivity bonuses of the hospital's department heads. The documents referred to in the news report would demonstrate that behind these changes were the two aforementioned officials, who have refused to make statements.

The same newspaper explains that among the affected patients were people diagnosed with spinal column anomalies, carpal tunnel syndrome, or dislocations. Also, at least one three-year-old minor, whose parents were not notified of the change in priority. Several surgeons complained, but they clashed with those responsible for the changes. At least one of the doctors who protested was penalized with the opening of a disciplinary file, according to the news report.

Faced with this situation, Minister Mónica García has recalled that the Spanish government brought forward new criteria for transparency and traceability of waiting lists in July and that they were not approved by the autonomous communities. "We hope they are approved now," she stated in her message on X.