Health only gives primary care 4.4% of what you need to work on the post-Covid era

Health offers primary care an economic endowment equivalent to 4.4% of the minimum needs required by doctors. In the presentation of the General Budgets of the State for 2022 a specific heading is collected for this area. The amount of the strategic framework ascends only 176 million euros. Carolina Darias, Minister of Health, promised a week ago that there would be a national plan to solve the shortcomings of this healthcare level.

"We know that primary care is a fundamental pillar to guarantee access to health, that is why we have approved unanimously, with two abstentions, an action plan for this level with concrete measures and with budgeting, which will be a turning point and improvement of it ". This was announced by Darias during the closure at the XLI Congress of the Spanish Society of Family Medicine and Community (Semfyc), held last weekend in Palma de Mallorca.

For primary care physicians the amount that reflect budgets just serves to meet needs some autonomy. For example, it is the case of Castilla y León. In the same forum of primary doctors, Veronica Married, counselor of said communicate pointed out on this matter that "there will be financing, and there will be financing from the Autonomous Communities. In Castilla y León, 175 million euros."

Salvador Trenche, president of Semfyc, presented in the Senate the accounts adjusted to the needs of primary professionals: 4,000 million euros. TRANTE specified in an interview this means that it is only one amount to reset the current needs. "The difference of family doctors who dragged with respect to the EU is not included in that budget; or if, for example, you propose to add new resources at the first level, it is not contemplated; or if you propose to deepen digitization and In information systems and new technologies in health centers, because it is not included either ".

The president of this group of physicians explains that "we estimate that 2,800 of these 4,000 million should be allocated to human resources and the remaining 1,200 for maintenance of health centers (around 50 million per year) and new equipment". Figures that are far from those that are collected in the current budgets.

Because, in addition, as Trenche explains, "the primary has been lost approximately the offset we have had with hospital care in this chapter since the beginning of the crisis in 2008. Between 2008 and 2019-2020, Primary has lost between a 36 and 38% more budget than specialized care. The hospital begins to recover around 2017, balances in 2018 and already in 2019 begins to grow a little bit. For obvious reasons, 2020 can not be compared with any previous exercise ".

In addition, as it was detached from the words of Darias, it is necessary to launch this action plan, which was committed to the declaration of last October 1 in Gran Canaria, with which to articulate concrete measures, with dates and budget commitment. As he recalled, this plan aims to achieve the right to protect the health of the population and guarantee close, equitable and cohesive care throughout the national territory. And he stressed that among his main objectives is the integral approach of health more frequent health problems; Clinical practice focused on the person and the community, considering the social determinants of health; The improvement of diagnostic resolution capacity, and strengthening the longitudinality of care.

It should be emphasized that TRANCHES insists that, despite the goodwill of the Autonomous Communities as Castilla y León pointed out, and it needs that "the problem is that the interiorritorial council does not conclude anything; it is limited to exposing a generic philosophy, with which all We could commune, but that is not accompanied by any economic memory, and so we are nowhere. The SOLAS CCAA can not and we need a pact, an explicit commitment of the State to improve the primary situation, because it is to improve the country's situation. ".