Public spending on private hospitals has skyrocketed by 85% in a decade in the State

BarcelonaPrivate 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.

In fact, this growth is observed throughout the private hospital network across the country, which in the last decade has seen the amount of public money it receives skyrocket by 85%, according to a new report the ministry presented this Tuesday. "It is one modus operandi "which is trying to parasitize our public system through the profit and loss accounts of private companies," Health Minister Mónica García stated regarding the case of the Madrid hospital.

"We know that this is not only happening at the Torrejón hospital, but that it is the modus operandi and the healthcare model of the Community of Madrid,” García added, noting that the same is common in the Valencian Community. In fact, the minister presented the2025 Report on the evaluation of private healthcare in the Spanish National Health System (NHS)The report warns of the growing dependence of the Spanish healthcare system on privately managed centers. According to the report's findings, the number of private hospitals integrated into the public health system has increased from 106 in 2011 to 145 in 2023, representing a growth of 36.8%. These centers now account for 30.7% of all hospitals in the public system, meaning almost one in three hospitals receiving public funding. This growth is also reflected in the number of hospital beds and operating rooms belonging to private hospitals: they now represent 17.8% and 10.7% respectively, a phenomenon particularly concentrated in Catalonia and Navarre, "where the private network represents a substantial part of the healthcare infrastructure," the Ministry of Health warns. Thus, the Ministry of Health study concludes that collaboration with private entities has gone from being an exceptional resource to becoming a structural practice. This means that more and more public resources are being allocated to "companies whose logic is driven by profit, not the general interest," and, at the same time, more and more people are taking out private health insurance. However, the public healthcare system covers more than 95% of the most expensive treatments, such as transplants, patients with severe burns, and high-risk pregnancies, among others, while the private sector handles less complex cases. In fact, the only area that is increasing in private hospitals outside the public system is diagnostic testing.

Inspection at the Quirón Group

For all these reasons, the Ministry of Health has decided to extend to the rest of the privately managed hospitals the investigation it opened at Torrejón Hospital following the release of audio recordings of Pablo Gallart, CEO of Ribera Salud—the company that manages it—ordering the rejection of unprofitable patients or procedures to lengthen waiting lists, prioritizing profits. According to the Minister, "Ribera Salud and Quirón are two sides of the same coin" of a "perfectly oiled system that requires the connivance and complicity, in this case, of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which in recent years has injected more than 5 billion euros into this group, equivalent to the entire budget." The High Inspectorate has requested detailed information from the Community of Madrid regarding the investigations it initiated at Torrejón Hospital, the financial and management audits of the last four years, and the minutes of the joint commission between the Community of Madrid and the management company. And regarding the Quirón centers, she has requested the files for the budget modifications of 2023, 2024, and 2025, along with their supporting reports, as well as the financial and management audits for the last four years. "Our objective is very clear: to guarantee transparency, to assess whether there has been appropriate use of public funds, and to protect the proper functioning of our healthcare system," the minister concluded.