READ VERSION IN SPANISH
The Department of Health makes a positive assessment of the Plan to improve citizens’ accessibility to health care, which was launched a year ago. The aim was to reduce waiting lists to access a specialist, a diagnostic test or a surgical intervention. For the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells i Díaz, “the situation before the pandemic has been recovered”. “Today we are better in all aspects compared to 2019; we have therefore overcome the pandemic and the post-pandemic”, he stressed.
In fact, the figures show that the percentages of people on the waiting list for surgery that were resolved on time improved in 2023 compared to the previous year, and is the best data collected since records available. Oncology has remained at 99%, cardiac surgery has gone from 99% to 100%, guaranteed surgery from 90% to 97% and, finally, all other surgeries from 92% to 97%.
The resolution time for a surgical intervention varies according to the type: oncology between 45 and 60 days; cardiac 90 days; the guaranteed ones (cataracts, hip prostheses and knee prostheses) 180 days, and the rest, 365 days. 2023 closed with 39,000 more interventions compared to 2022, which is 11% more, and late surgical interventions were reduced by 61%.
Health will now focus on improving access to visits to primary care centers. For this purpose, Salut will implement throughout Catalonia the tool called programming for reasons. The platform, “very interactive and very well developed”, has been tested as a pilot plan in 2023 in 14 primary care teams distributed throughout the territory, and “has shown very good results”, as explained by Councilor Balcells .
The tool identifies 285 possible reasons for consultation to define the waiting time, depending on the urgency. “Some reasons that should allow us to prioritize those who need to be visited within 24 hours, more quickly (in the case of someone who has a fever), and those who can wait a few days, 3-5 days (in the case of someone who has a back pain for a few months), Balcells explained. For the holder of Health, with this system it is also guaranteed that the person will be treated by his or her usual doctor, which is essential for the follow-up of patients.
The Plan to improve citizens’ accessibility to health care measures the experience of accessing the system. In the section on visits to the specialist, during 2023 visits outside the deadline were reduced by 12%.
2023 closed with 165,000 more diagnostic tests compared to 2022, a 21% increase, and overdue diagnostic tests were reduced by 30%.
Regarding visits to primary care centers, two out of three people had an appointment in 5 days or less.
In achieving these figures, the councilor pointed to two important factors: the effort made by the professionals of the entire system and the financial investment of the Plan of 100 million euros, which will remain as structural to consolidate the system accessibility improvements.
On the other hand, the overall degree of satisfaction of citizens with the care received has increased by 0.35 points, going from 7.37 in 2022 to 7.72 in 2023, according to the latest Perception Survey Plan , user experience and satisfaction (PLAENSA).
With regard to the personal treatment that users receive from doctors, it is rated satisfactory in 93.1% and that of nurses in 94.8%. Likewise, 94.1% of the public value the explanations they receive from primary care professionals.
