Some 10,500 people summoned by the Committee for the Defense of Public Health of Madrid (MEDSAP), according to data from the regional government, demonstrated today in the Spanish capital to protest against the “privatization of health” in the region.
In the protest, which brought together political parties and several unions, the demonstrators shouted slogans against “cuts and privatizations”, defending “public health” and blaming the Community of Madrid, headed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso (from Popular), due to to the “precarious” situation of the sector.
“The public health that they (the Community of Madrid) claim is not health, nor is it public. It is not healthcare because, in reality, it is a business, (…) and it is not public because it is parasitized ”, argued Carmen Esbrí, MEDSAP spokesperson, quoted by international organizations.
Esbrí explained that opening long-term care points “without health professionals” is like “opening an airport without planes.”
“How can we have basic units with deficiencies, with few equipment? How are we going to be able to take care of our elderly and our children?” questioned the union spokeswoman.
The response of the Madrid public health committee is to invest more in basic care, applying up to 25% of the budget to the sector, to hire more health professionals.
The spokesperson for the Más Madrid regional party, Mónica García, criticized the “inability” of Díaz Ayuso to “reach solutions”, whom she accuses of not being able to dialogue with health professionals and of ignoring the real needs of the sector.
“We tell Mrs. Ayuso what we have been saying for months: you do not play with your health. Doctors protect us. What the Government of the Community of Madrid has to do is, basically, sit down with the doctors in the same way and with the same ease with which it sits down with the investment funds,” said García.
The spokesperson for the Madrid section of the United We Can movement, Alejandra Jacinto, has asked Ayuso to stop “torturing” doctors and pediatricians, accusing her of “showing arrogance” in her way of approving the regional budgets.
Source: TSF
