The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Esther Monzón, intervened telematically this Wednesday morning in the extraordinary meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System in which **the distribution of credits for the Strategic Framework for Primary Care was debated**. Monzón, despite voting favorably to not lose funding, regretted that the Ministry of Health **does not take into account the island and outermost region status of the Canary Islands**
Monzón claims compensation for insularity and the outermost region status that entails additional costs in infrastructure, equipment, and the provision of healthcare and non-healthcare personnel.
The distribution criteria established in this agreement are those relating to the equivalent protected population, which account for 96% of the funding, the surface area, accounted for 2.4%, and dispersion and insularity with 0.8%, without taking into account the concept of ultra-peripheralityIt is on these last points where the counselor regrets that "this distribution of funds does not contemplate a higher percentage of funding for an archipelago far from the peninsular territory and fragmented into eight islands like the Canary Islands, which suffers, due to these geographical conditions, impediments that other peninsular regions or the Balearic archipelago, closer to the peninsula, do not have".The agreement proposes the distribution among the autonomous communities and INGESA of credits from the Ministry of Health intended to finance actions of the Primary and Community Care Action Plan 2025-2027, through two budgetary lines: 85,301,000 euros in current transfers and 87,124,000 euros in capital transfers, which makes **a total of 172,425,000 euros for this concept**
According to Esther Monzón, "this current model treats island status as a marginal variable, without recognizing the structural, permanent, and differential character of the ultra-periphery".
Furthermore, the document does not include any specific reference or criterion associated with the status of the Canary Islands as an Outermost Region (RUP), limiting itself to incorporating the generic concept of islandness. “This omission represents an underestimation of the structural factors recognized by European and state law. The non-consideration of the RUP factor generates a negative impact on the financing capacity of the Canary Islands' healthcare system, particularly in the area of Primary Care, affecting effective territorial coverage, human resource allocation, equity in access to healthcare services, structural logistical and operational costs, and the sustainability of the healthcare model in outermost territories.
Recognition
Monzón recalls thatCanary Islands has the status of Outermost Region recognized in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Canary Islands Statute of Autonomy, in addition to having been reiterated in state, budgetary, and health regulations, as well as with the existence of consolidated jurisprudence from the Court of Justice of the European UnionThis status recognizes the existence of permanent structural limitations, among which are the geographical remoteness from the continental territory, the territorial fragmentation into eight islands, multiple insularity, dependence on maritime and air transport, structural limitations in human resources, and a higher structural cost in the provision of public services. "These circumstances have a direct impact on the cost and organization of healthcare in the Canary Islands, which is finalizing the deployment of its More Primary Care strategy," states
Framework Statute
Regarding the negotiation of the Framework Statute reform, Esther Monzón, criticized the Ministry of Health's position regarding the negotiation with the Framework Statute unions for not achieving a consensus with all union forces, which will affect patient care in each of Spain's health services. In this regard, she demands that the measures must be accompanied by the appropriate funding so that the respective health services can implement them competently