Several hundred thousand people marched in Madrid on Sunday during a new demonstration in defense of the public health system in the Spanish capital region, undermined for months by the lack of staff and means.
The demonstrators, including many caregivers, gathered to the sound of drums and whistles in different points of the capital before converging on the town hall, around banners proclaiming: "Health is not sold, it is defended", found AFP.
Numbering 250,000 according to the prefecture, and nearly a million according to the organizers, they demanded "more resources" from the regional government of Madrid and its president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, accused of favoring private providers to the detriment of the service audience.
"In Spain, the public health system was very good. But in recent years, it has deteriorated sharply, especially since the pandemic", notes Ana Santamaria, a resident of Madrid who came to parade with a friend, Susana Bardillo.
"To get an appointment, you now have to wait weeks. As a result, people go to the emergency room, which is completely overwhelmed", abounds the latter. This system "mistreats professionals, and mistreats patients", she denounces.
This demonstration, called by groups of residents, is the third large-scale organized for three months in the Spanish capital, after that of January 15 and especially November 13, which had gathered 200,000 people, according to the prefecture.
It comes as some of the doctors in the capital's public establishments have been on strike since November 21, at the call of Madrid's main doctors' union (Amyts), to demand better working conditions and salary increases. .
"There are endless waiting lists. We can't keep up," explains Maite Lopez, a nurse in the audience, who is demonstrating to be "finally heard". "The situation is dramatic", she laments, "we cannot take good care of the patients".
The discontent vis-à-vis the failures of the health system has affected in recent months other regions in Spain, a very decentralized country where the regional authorities have control over public health. But it is in Madrid that the movement is strongest.
The community of Madrid is in fact in penultimate position of the 18 Spanish regions in terms of investment in public health, with 1,491 euros per year and per inhabitant, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health dating from 2020.
A situation considered paradoxical, Madrid being the richest region of Spain. "It is a shame that with so much wealth, access to quality public health care is not guaranteed", regretted in the demonstration Pepe Alvarez, secretary general of the UGT, one of the main Spanish unions.
Figure of the People's Party (PP) and representative of the Spanish hard right, the president of the Madrid region Isabel Diaz Ayuso has repeatedly accused the demonstrators of being motivated by "political" interests, denying any desire to weaken the public health system.
"We have never allocated so much money to public health" in the region, she assured Thursday, denouncing "fake news" against her.
12/02/2023 16:30:29 - Madrid (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
