Junta's public healthcare service allocates 533m euros to private sector to reduce surgical backlogs

Andalucía's public healthcare service (SAS) is to allocate 533 million euros to contracts with private healthcare companies to carry out surgical interventions in order to reduce waiting lists across the region.

The SAS has already awarded 38 companies and 50 healthcare centres and hospitals a contract to take on these operations starting in September, for which it will spend 231 million euros over the next two years. These contracts will be extendable for two more years, which would increase the total spend to 533 million euros.

This mega-contract to streamline surgical waiting lists has already been cleared after overcoming the last hurdle, which was the resolution by the regional, administrative court of contractual appeals (TARCJA) on the appeals filed by companies that competed in this tender. This court resolved in favour of the SAS.

The regional health ministry stressed that never before has such a large contract been agreed in the history of Andalucía's healthcare industry to support more surgical interventions. The same regional ministry also gave assurances that this commitment does not compromise the resources already allocated to the region's health guarantee plan.

Likewise, the regional health ministry headed by Rocío Hernández highlighted the gradual reduction in waiting lists, as only 18.78% of patients were waiting for an operation after the guaranteed deadline by June, compared to 37.20% who were waiting for an appointment nearly 18 months ago.

According to the same ministry, the current average delay for surgery in Andalucía is 108 days, compared to 150 days in 2023. These figures reflect continued progress in waiting-list management, which is also reflected in the 42-day reduction in waiting times for surgery.

In Andalucía, from January to June, more than 223,000 operations were performed, 3% more than in the same period last year, when 216,738 patients underwent surgery. Some 86% of these operations were performed in public (SAS) hospitals, while "only" 14% were handled by means of a public-private contract.

The presidential spokesperson for the PSOE party in Andalucía, Mario Jiménez, said this week that the Junta is preparing to "sign a new framework agreement that over the next four years would allow it to steal 533 million euros from the public healthcare system to channel it into private healthcare and endlessly feed the cronies of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, who are in that private healthcare system in Andalucía."

The socialist spokesperson stated that "it has been demonstrated that this model and the Andalusian government's strategy of resorting to private healthcare does not work to reduce waiting lists and is an endless theft from public healthcare."

He also argued that "billions of euros have already been transferred to private healthcare and Andalucía continues to be the region in Spain with the longest waiting lists, where the people have to wait the longest for a diagnostic test or surgery."