ACN
The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, María del Mar Julios, yesterday ratified in Parliament the Executive's commitment to reduce healthcare waiting lists in "what remains of the Legislature", although she did not provide any timeline for the objectives, in contrast to the announcement made in the previous session by the regional head of Economy and Finance, José Carlos Mauricio, that they would disappear in 2006.
The Minister considers that waiting lists are a common problem in countries that have a free and universal system and, in this line, proposed forging a pact to guarantee the sustainability of the public health service, in the same way that the Toledo Pact was made in relation to the maintenance of pensions. To this end, she proposed taking as a base document the document of the group of experts created for this purpose by the Government to "forge a social pact for healthcare in the Canary Islands".
These proposals are based on the existence of a specific problem in the Islands due to the growing demand derived from population growth and its aging, as well as the fact that the system is universal and free also for "foreigners who pass through here". In this sense, she said that 10% of the Canary Islands health cards belong to foreign population without resources who are entitled to health care, which generated more than 30,000 assistances in 2004. "We must act on this issue, but that implies a state consensus", which they intend to promote from the Canary Islands.
Julios valued the fact that there has been a decrease from more than 16,000 patients on the waiting list for more than six months, at the end of 2002, to the 7,499 that there are now and assured that this decrease would be greater if the Autonomous Community were not subjected to the population growth "in which we are immersed".
Action plans
Among the specific measures that the Government is going to take to achieve this objective, the subject of the appearance requested by the Popular Group, the Minister began by pointing out the important growth of the area's budgets in the accounts planned for 2006. Among the action plans that the Ministry is carrying out to reduce patients on the waiting list, she announced that it is intended to increase minor outpatient surgery and improve the infrastructure of these centers to be able to perform major outpatient surgery and diagnostic tests.
In addition, she assured the implementation of measures to increase the production capacity of public systems through infrastructure plans, which will provide hospitals with more operating rooms, outpatient consultation rooms and diagnostic tests, for which they are dedicating 100 million euros extra this year from an extraordinary credit extension of the Budgets. However, she stressed the need to continue using the concerted centers, "because it is about solving the problem of citizens".
Regarding the possibility of reinforcing the afternoon programs for surgical activity, she explained that they are being authorized "depending on the waiting list and whether there is good performance in the morning", since "their perversity is that they decrease the activity of the morning". However, she assured that specific shock plans will be made through the use of hospitals in the afternoon and concerted centers in those more saturated specialties.
The current order of guarantees is also being extended, which will be extended to 75% of the pathologies in a first phase and will reach 100% in the second, in such a way that a "reasonable" waiting time is established before forcing the Administration to materialize the patient's right to use the public network. Likewise, she reiterated that they are awaiting a legal report on the decree that regulates the waiting lists, which aims to organize the management of surgical waiting lists, consultation and diagnostic tests of the entire public network and concerted centers in relation to the patients referred. This will unify the information and the criteria to provide it, in such a way that the services of the Ministry know the global situation and, through the establishment of criteria for assignment and referral from one hospital to another, allows a more agile management and greater efficiency in the use of healthcare resources.
