The Government reform to 'shield' public health will increase waiting lists, average times and hospital occupancy

• Health These are the obstacles of the health reform that wants to shield public health

The Institute for the Development and Integration of Health (IDIS) has prepared a report in which it analyzes the impact that the

approved by the Council of Ministers last June, and with which the Government intends to carry out a health reform that shields public management and eliminates current collaboration with private entities.

According to the document, said reform would have a

both for first consultations (153% more) and for surgeries (102% more), in the

of those waits (more than 58 days for first consultations and more than 75 for surgeries) and also in the

So to the voices of some autonomies such as the Basque Country or Catalonia, which has a care model with more than a hundred years and in which 65% of care provision is concerted;

with non-profit entities, but in concert, now joins the devastating

.

In his analysis,

, he details that according to data from the Ministry of Health corresponding to 2020, "the private health system, through the different collaboration formulas, carries out around four million first consultations. This represents around

. Assuming that the concerts would disappear, the total number of first consultations would be handled by the public system" If so, they point out from IDIS, "

". Once these agreements with private health have disappeared, the report highlights that "

and this increase in the waiting list would increase the average waiting time by up to 58 days in the first year.

With this increase, the

".

Regarding the surgical waiting lists, the report points out that

, which represents around 16% of the total surgeries of that year", and the IDIS warns that if they are fully assumed by the public system "in one year, the waiting lists would increase by around 100% with respect to the last available data of June 2021 if the public system does not increase their resources".

These figures, according to this report

" which would mean an increase in the average waiting time "by up to 75 days in the first year. With this increase, the

".

Bed occupancy and costs

But not only waiting lists and average times would be affected by the disappearance of private collaboration in public health, according to IDIS, since, according to the Institute, "

.

In addition, they add "the late approach would motivate an increase not only in costs but in citizen health. Using data published by the Ministry of Health corresponding to the activity of 2020, the occupancy rate of public beds is calculated at 70.6% in Spain. If the collaboration disappears, it is estimated that the rate of this occupation could reach 85%".

Regarding the repercussion on the costs of the public system of the breakdown of private concerts, the IDIS maintains that

".

But in a very extreme scenario, and in the event of total absorption of this concerted activity, "the increase in spending

".

The report details that "from the point of view of care, the public system would have to assume nearly six million stays and 11 million consultations, according to the 2020 annual tables published by the Ministry. The average price difference calculated from the stays and consultations in concerted centers is 135 euros and 28 euros respectively, according to the data available in the official bulletins of some communities".

In other words,

.

The absorption of this activity by the public system would mean an increase in the cost of around 800 million euros derived from the stays and 306 million euros from the first, successive and high-resolution consultations".

Regarding diagnostic tests, they point out that "the public system would have to take care of nearly 800 thousand such as mammograms, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography, ultrasound and

monitoring assumed until now by private-public collaboration, according to estimates derived from the official gazettes of some autonomous communities".

Thus, they add, "the difference in price of these tests in concerted centers and public centers is 47 euros for mammograms, 126 for MRI, 47 for CT tests, 10 for ultrasounds, which would mean an increase in spending of up to 60 million euros for the public system".

In its report, the IDIS recalls that "the private health sector has a provision of 432 hospitals in Spain and 49,861 hospital beds, of which

".

In addition, it points out that in 2020, "private hospitals with substitute agreements, integrated into the public use network or partial agreements, carried out

, more than

, attended nearly 2.5 million emergencies (11.8% of the total) and more than 550 thousand hospital discharges (12.2%)".

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