The general secretary of the PSOE of Andalusia and its candidate for the Andalusian Government, María Jesús Montero, has made it clear that the elections on May 17 are going to be a “referendum on healthcare.” And this Saturday he endorsed it again, but not only to denounce the deterioration of the Andalusian health system, with collapsed primary care and uncontrollable waiting lists, or to accuse the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno of intentionally weakening it for the benefit of private companies – that too -, but to present his model to revive Andalusian public health. a battery of very ambitious proposals, among which stands out the elimination of delays in accessing the family doctor, the specialist and the operating rooms in the first six months of government; a promise that will be possible thanks to the injection of 3,000 million annually only to the Health item, linked to the 5,700 million that would correspond to the territory according to the autonomous agreement that she presented when she was Minister of Finance, and that the Andalusian PP has rejected.
“Who’s heart doesn’t shrink when we experience the day-to-day life of what was once the jewel in the crown?” Montero, a surgeon by profession and Health Advisor to the Junta between 2004 and 2013, began her speech, referring to how the socialist governments referred to Andalusian healthcare. The PSOE-A candidate has asked citizens to channel their frustration at the deterioration of the community’s public health system – the worst rated in Spain according to CIS – at the polls. “If people mobilize on May 17, public health can be recovered,” he maintained.
The PSOE of Andalusia, like the rest of the left-wing parties, but also Vox, relies on the erosion of Moreno’s absolute majority on the discontent of citizens with Andalusian healthcare. A good part of the bad results that the socialists achieved in 2018 and that led, with the support of Ciudadanos and Vox, for the PP to reach the Board, had to do with that disenchantment of the Andalusians that moved to the streets at the hands of the one who promoted the mass demonstrations in the last years of the Susana Díaz legislature.. The popular ones are aware of this eroding effect and this morning, Moreno recalled those mobilizations in Granada —where Candel was from—, during the presentation of his party’s lists. “No one forgets the dismissal of 7,700 health workers or the cut of 1.7 billion euros,” the popular baron has drawn attention.
Montero does not shy away from that comparison, and this Saturday she has highlighted – something that Andalusian socialist leaders have not usually done in the last eight years – the development and expansion of public health with socialist governments, vindicated the advances in biomedical research and rights, developed when she was a councilor. “In the desire to leave underdevelopment behind, the first socialist governments crystallized with a powerful, universal, free public health system, which guaranteed cutting-edge rights and benefits, which deployed a network of primary care hospital centers, which structured and united our community,” Montero defended.
“This was not a coincidence, it was the consequence of a clear political will: that of building real equality where historically there was inequality,” the socialist leader added, to confront this commitment to equity with the PP model: “There is a problem of poor management, but above all there is a problem of model. What the PP intends is the privatization of healthcare and that is what the non-decisions or deliberate decisions are leading to to get us to this point. This is a manual of neoliberal policies, that’s why “They weaken public services and reduce quality, so that citizens have to turn to private insurance.”
Last November, he focused on health matters and promised a reform of the Andalusian Health System, which he considered “rigid” and “inefficient.” However, nothing has emerged about what these changes will consist of, other than that a committee of experts will be created, about which nothing is known either. Montero has spoiled that secrecy: “He has said that health care is not sustainable and he has saved what he wants to transform it into for the electoral campaign. When one does not explain what he is going to do, we all know that it is because there is a hidden agenda that they know will penalize him and we know that, due to Moreno’s soft character, he is not going to put it in a headline.”
Take the lead
The socialist candidate wants to lead the debate around the models and has presented an ambitious battery of measures that will be included by law (if she reaches the Junta government) and that involve making an “intervention that rescues the public system.” “The first decision I am going to make is to approve a rescue plan to save the health system, to be able to get it back on its feet, with an economic report, execution calendar, finalized budget, evaluation and indicators that can show us if we are on the right path,” Montero promised.
The priority in this intervention plan is to end the waiting lists that Andalusia leads in all parameters. Montero wants appointments to be seen in primary care to not exceed 48 hours – in the community the average is 11.6 days, the highest in Spain, whose average is 9.5 -; 30 days for diagnostic tests —in Andalusia these lists have not been published since 2019—; 60 days for consultations —the average wait is 127 days, 96 in the rest of the country—; 120 for surgical interventions for frequent pathologies and 180 for the most complex ones—compared to the 121 average in the rest of the country—These deadlines will be regulated in a law and must come into force in the first six months of his term, if he becomes president.
Montero intends to fulfill this commitment with a direct injection of resources, specifically 3,000 million of the 5,700 million that the community has allocated in accordance with the new distribution model of the financing system that she designed when she was Minister of Finance, a model that should be approved through an organic law and that, at the moment, does not have the support of the PP, Vox and Junts for it to move forward.
The health plan goes further. It also contemplates guaranteeing by law the equalization of salaries for health professionals – one of the eternal demands of the sector in the community – through incentives to guarantee their presence in areas with difficult coverage or measures to reinforce primary care, such as the increase in medical professionals and nurses, the incorporation of new specialists – in total 18,000 jobs -, debureaucratization or the shielding of agendas. Similar initiatives are included in the pact for primary care that the Board signed with the unions in 2023, systematically the workers’ representatives.
Montero has reiterated another of the first promises he made when he left his positions in the central government: the limitation of healthcare agreements, pointing out that “where there is a concerted hospital there will be a public one.” It has also shown its intention to reinforce the functions of primary care doctors or complete the network of high-resolution hospitals, a commitment of the socialist governments, or the incorporation and development of new technologies in public health centers.
In a more organic way, the socialist leader has committed to making the Ministry of Health the vice-presidency of the Board, after pointing out that right now that portfolio is shared with the Presidency and Emergencies, and has proposed the creation of an alliance for public health in which the unions, white tide, health professionals, technicians, specialists and citizen platforms are present that would be established within the first year of government.
With the Plan Montero, The PSOE not only seeks to lead the health debate in the community ahead of the pre-campaign, it also seeks to regain the trust of health professionals who turned their backs on it in 2018, discouraged by the cuts forced by the great recession, and capitalize on the citizen discontent that Marea Blanca has made visible since November 2020, months after Moreno achieved the absolute majority. The next one will take place this Sunday in all the Andalusian capitals.
