Jaume Padrós: "The health system remains efficient because professionals are poorly paid"

BarcelonaJaume Padrós (Barcelona, ​​​​1959) has been president of the Barcelona College of Physicians (COMB) for the last 11 years. In this time, he has seen it all: a pandemic, strikes, demographic changes, therapeutic revolutions. He has also met eleven Ministers of Health and six Health Councillors. This expert in family and gerontological medicine was first elected in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2021, in the midst of the health crisis due to Covid.

Now, by statute, he can no longer stand for office again and his replacement – ​​in what will be the continuity candidacy – will be headed by Elvira Bisbe, until now vice president of the organization. At the moment, his is the only candidacy presented, but there is still time, because the deadline for submission ends on Saturday. More than 40,000 doctors are called to participate in the new elections.

He's about to step down as president. Are you ready?

— No, I suppose not. You have to know how to bend and I think there is a time for a change, but I would continue, obviously. Now it is my turn to put myself at the disposal of the new board, which I hope will be the candidate for continuity, and I will do what is necessary. I am a man of action and I like the front line; we have many challenges and I still feel that I have the desire, availability and mentality to be able to help change things.

Is there any measure or project that you regret not having been able to promote in these years?

— My assessment of these eleven years is very good, but there are still things pending. We have worked to achieve broad political consensus and I believe that there is now a broad consensus to restore the excellence of the Catalan health system and to make the necessary changes to achieve this. I believe that we have collaborated to ensure that this is the general thought of the country: to have a strong health system that is adequate to the needs of the population of the 21st century. I would have liked to see the accelerator pressed at certain times, when we had the opportunity to do so.

Now it is the Committee for Evaluation, Innovation and Operational Reform of the Health System (CAIROS) that is tasked with thinking up a new health system. Do you think it will succeed?

— I think it is a very good initiative and I trust in the honesty and understanding of its president, Manel del Castillo. He is the ideal person for this position. Now, the committee only makes proposals and it is not up to it whether they are promoted or not, it is the Government who must execute them. To do this, adequate funding and the support of other political groups are necessary. We must seriously consider how we make this system sustainable and of quality. If we do not do so, we run the risk of it becoming a universal system, but for the poor, and of the rich going to the private sector. The public system must have the best professionals, it must be able to retain them, which implies paying better, but also improving organisation and personal autonomy.

Is the system better or worse than when you became president of the COMB?

— I came in after the cuts and people were very tired. Now I still see tension between professionals and we also have more elderly patients, with multiple pathologies, who get sick more often and require more care. Frailty blocks the levels of care more than other ailments. We must ensure that professionals can care for these patients well instead of devoting a large part of their work to bureaucratic tasks. CAIROS already takes this into account and will try to change it, we have already lost enough time. Now the Catalan health system remains efficient because professionals are poorly paid.

How do you see the future of the school?

— It must continue to be the voice of the profession. We are the representatives of all professionals, those who work in the private sector and those who work in the public sector, and we also represent the values of professionalism and we must defend them. It must also be present in the major debates that concern citizens, such as artificial intelligence, drug use or the use of screens among young people, and denounce those social variables that determine our health, such as poverty, homelessness or climate change. For example, the vaccination against Covid-19 was the most democratic act I have ever seen in my life and was designed to protect the most vulnerable people.

So far, only one candidate has been presented, which is a continuation.

— Yes, I hope that the profession will give us confidence and that we will win the elections. Since it was announced that I would not continue as president, I have received massive support from my colleagues for the work I have done, which I am very grateful for. I feel very honoured to have been the visible head, but that is not just one person, we are a team, and the candidacy headed by Elvira Obispo represents this team that has led the college in recent years.

What will you do now that you are no longer the president of the COMB?

— Many things. I am not retiring as a doctor, I will continue working in my private practice and in the fragile patient unit that I run for the Mutuam group. I am no longer the president, but I have many projects ahead of me, collegiate, professional and personal, and I will continue to do them with the same attitude as always, which is what I was taught at home: always be available for whatever comes up.