The Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has closed 2,470 hospital beds this summer, which is equivalent to the closure of two third-level hospitals such as the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital and the 12 de Octubre University Hospital.
CCOO denounces that each year the closures increase and the hiring of professionals decreases. The union believes that the regional government should take advantage of the summer to move forward in reducing the numbers of citizens who are on waiting lists.
Hospital La Paz is the one that reduces its hospitalization capacity the most. Of its 1,048 beds, it closed 374 in August, which represents more than 35% of its number of beds. The Gregorio Marañón Hospital, the largest in Madrid, closes 343 beds, out of a total of 1,671. Hospital 12 de Octubre, the second with the highest hospitalization capacity (1,256 beds), closes 266. Hospital Ramón y Cajal closes 306 beds, out of 901 beds in operation at the aforementioned center.
The Clinical Hospital leaves 163 beds closed, out of 861 installed. The Puerta de Hierro Hospital closes 151, when it has 613 installed. The Móstoles Hospital also exceeds one hundred beds closed this summer, and in this center, the percentage of beds that will not work this summer exceeds 36%, the highest of all public centers.
The union denounces this situation of closing beds, which is repeated year after year, but is growing. In fact, CCOO explains that according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health portal corresponding to the month of May of this year, there are 898,654 people on the waiting list for surgery, diagnostic tests and specialized outpatient consultations. The Unified Registry of the Surgical Waiting List of the Community of Madrid records, with data from last May, 86,151 patients waiting for surgery.
In the CCOO’s opinion, “the reduction in hospital beds, the closure of activity in operating rooms and the accumulation of people awaiting intervention blocks the reduction of waiting lists.”
Faced with this situation, the union calls on the Executive of the Community of Madrid to increase hiring, improve working conditions and keep hospital beds in 100% operation during the three summer months to get out of the endless delays both in the surgical area, as well as in diagnostic tests or specialized medicine.
