The Association for the Defense of Public Health of the Canary Islands (ADSPC) has maintained this Monday that the decrease in the surgical waiting list is due to the "massive" referral of patients to private contracted healthcare.
The association, in a statement, has criticized that the Government of the Canary Islands promotes private business with public money, instead of promoting public health where "despite the commendable effort of its professionals, the reality is that they work with precarious staff due to the decrease in the budgets of public centers."
According to this association, the balance of the agreement is that "clearly not only has not solved the problems but has worsened them by increasing healthcare costs that deplete public health, preventing it from achieving self-sufficiency at some point."
In this sense, it has requested information from the Government of the Canary Islands about the Activa Plan, to know the referrals to the contracted private sector and self-exclusions from the waiting list for various reasons.
The association has specified that the surgical waiting list has decreased by more than 6 months but in total it has increased from 33,751 to 34,125 patients and the one of less than 6 months has increased from 24,421 to 26,737 patients.
Regarding the decrease in the waiting list for specialist consultations, the association has denounced the generalized referral of consultations, and also diagnostic tests, to all contracted centers.
For example, the referrals to the San Juan de Dios Clinic, which, according to the association, has been increasing its character as a reference center for specialties for many health centers.
Another mechanism that is used to "decrease" this waiting list is converting what is the annual appointment with specialists, every 12 months therefore, into appointments every 19 months, it added in the note.
In short, the Association for the Defense of Public Health of the Canary Islands has requested that waiting lists be addressed through a plan to address them that needs specific human resources and the strengthening of the operation at 100% of public health centers.
All this entails recovering the lost staff, strengthening them and improving working conditions, it added.
Likewise, it has demanded that the application of the regulations that enable the outsourcing of services be avoided as much as possible, until it is repealed, so that "not a single more public euro goes to private healthcare."
