The dissolution of the Courts as a result of the call for general elections has left dozens of pending legislative initiatives in the freezer, including the reform of the Patronage law, approved by Congress on April 26 and pending approval in the Senate in a procedure scheduled for May 31. Many voices demand that the Government immediately process this regulation through a decree-law, due to the fact that it is a long-awaited reform for the sustenance and viability of organizations that work for the well-being of citizens.
Among these voices is that of the distinguished surgeon Antonio de Lacy, former head of the Gastrointestinal Surgery service at the Clínic de Barcelona hospital and current head of the Lacy Surgical Institute. This doctor also calls for the suspension of other health-related projects, such as the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) law, a rule that aims to guarantee the right to a dignified life for people suffering from ALS . “They are dying patients, and they die in a terrible way, but there are few of them, about 4,000 or 5,000 in Spain and with few votes, so we see that they have been forgotten when for the first time they could find recognition of the society To put a piece of candy in the mouth of someone who has nothing and who is getting worse every day seems cruel to me, more than a lack of humanity”, he criticizes.
In the same way, De Lacy abhors the stagnation of the Mental Health law, which emphasizes both the assistance dimension and the promotional aspect to combat the effects of discriminatory behaviors derived from social stigma that affect people with problems of mental health and that hinder their social inclusion and quality of life.
Another project that has been parked is the Oncological Right to Be Forgotten law, “a fundamental framework”, according to De Lacy: “Many patients are cured, it’s been 5 or 10 years and they don’t get medical insurance or mortgages . They are treated with discrimination. We are already there again with the number of voters. It is good that we are so inclusive that we include everything, but we do not include something that has nothing to do with race, sex or origin, but is simply a human being who has had cancer and is already cured”.
The Balearic surgeon expresses a special interest in getting the Patronage law out of the way, taking into account his experience with sponsorship at the Clínic hospital. In 2017, the center started a pioneering program in Spain for prehabilitation (optimizing the physical condition of the patient who will face a surgical intervention) with which the admission of operated patients to the center has been reduced by more than 50% uci and complications, mortality and healthcare costs have gone down. Through the management of De Lacy, the tennis player Rafa Nadal equipped the prehabilitation room with Technogym equipment – ??the official technical supplier of his academy – with the latest technology.
In 2014, the late chemist, businessman, philanthropist and friend of De Lacy Pere Mir financed, at the insistence of the surgeon, the acquisition for the Clinic of the first Da Vinci surgical robot in Spain and one of the first in Europe. In 2004 – “after many conversations and having taken many croquettes at Esther Koplowitz’s house in Madrid”, recalls the doctor – he forged what was the most important patronage of scientific research in Spain, and one of the most prominent in Europe. The Esther Koplowitz Foundation pledged a donation of 15 million euros for the construction of a research center for the Clinic. “We said that it would be logical for FCC – the sponsor’s company – to build it. She got angry and said no kidding, she had to go to the competition and she had to do everything, which shows the kind of person she is.”
De Lacy highlights the fruits of public-private collaboration to claim the Patronage law as a pillar of the future health system he is projecting. “The time has come to create the new healthcare system for the next 50 years using new technologies”, he explains. The formula preserves “the most wonderful thing that Spain has, which is to treat everyone the same, whether you are the richest or whether you arrived as a shepherd”. And it adds inclusivity through the we deserve hospital concept, “what we patients deserve, not doctors”. “In this system you unite public and private and you have your Patronage law by which people can deduct their contributions from taxes and will give more”.
The new hospital, according to De Lazy, will be based on AI: “For example, the diagnostic method can be immediate, in seconds, and you won’t have to wait days or weeks. And in prevention, genetics will probably help us a lot. If we have a prevention of possible cancer, diabetes or any of the hereditary diseases, this will not be an expense, but an investment because we will have a saving”.
