MADRID/TOLEDO, 20 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Canary Islands, the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia are the autonomous communities with the worst health services, according to a report by the Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Health (FADSP) published this Thursday, which has also placed Castilla-La Mancha among the regions with “poor” sanitation.
At the other extreme are Navarra, the Basque Country, Extremadura and Asturias, which are the CCAAs that obtain the best score in the FADSP analysis, which collects data mostly from 2022, one from 2023, and some from 2021 to make a comparison between the different autonomies.
The Defense of Public Health considers that the Autonomous Communities with “regular” health services are, in this order, Aragón, Galicia, Castilla y León, La Rioja and Cantabria. Behind, with “deficient” health, are the Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia and Madrid.
In this year’s report, eight Autonomous Communities rise compared to last year: Aragon (5 places), Extremadura and Catalonia (4), Galicia (3), Navarra, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Murcia (1). The decreases in the classification are from seven Autonomous Communities: Cantabria and Castilla la Mancha (5 places), Andalusia and Valencia (3), Castilla y León (2), the Basque Country and Asturias (1). Two autonomies remain in the same position as the previous year: La Rioja and Madrid.
Regarding 2019, the evolution of the Autonomous Communities in this FADSP report has been as follows: Navarra, the Basque Country, Asturias and Murcia remain in the same position; Extremadura (5 places), Galicia (4) Canarias (3), Cantabria and Catalonia (2) improve; and Castilla-La Mancha (5), Aragon, Castilla y León, Andalusia and the Valencian Community (2), La Rioja, the Balearic Islands and Madrid (1) worsen.
Until 2021, the last two Autonomous Communities were the same in all the reports (Canary Islands and the Valencian Community), but in 2021 and 2022 Murcia ranked last (the penultimate in 2019 and in 2023). In this year’s report, the last place is occupied by Andalusia for the first time, although since 2019 it was in the last four places.
The first two positions in the last five reports are occupied by the Autonomous Communities themselves, with changes in the relative positions. In 2022, the first three positions are the same as in 2021 and in the same order, but in 2023 Extremadura enters third place and Asturias drops to fourth (3rd in 2021 and 2022).
In summary, according to the FADSP, of the CCAAs with leftist governments, 30 percent improve their position, 20 percent remain the same and 50 percent worsen; while, in those with right-wing governments, position improves by 20 percent, maintains it by 20 percent and 60 percent worsens. In the case of those governed by nationalists, 50 percent improve their position and the other 50 percent remain the same.
According to the association, in any case, the difference between CCAAs is “clearly excessive”. In fact, the ratio between the autonomy with the highest score and the one with the lowest score is 1.66 and has increased compared to 2022 (1.50) and 2021 (1.63).
“Therefore, it continues to show a great disparity in health services between the CCAAs, which, far from decreasing, has increased, which continues to endanger the necessary cohesion and equity between territories,” they have argued.
In general terms, from FADSP they warn of a deterioration of Spanish healthcare, especially in Primary Care, which “continues with intolerable waits, with insufficient resources and with serious problems that make it very difficult for it to be the backbone of the healthcare system”.
Likewise, they point to the “deficits” of human resources or the “deficit” of hospital beds. “These problems are widespread throughout the National Health System (SNS) and have affected, to a greater or lesser extent, all the autonomous communities,” the report states.
