The Transparency and Good Governance Council had to urge the Ministry of Health to provide this data. Statistics reveal that, in the There are serious differences in the National Health System in waiting lists among the Autonomous Communities.
Data that is not easily provided by Health
Indeed, we have been waiting for more than ten years for data with a breakdown by autonomous region, in order to be able to evaluate these differences.
It has been thanks to a Transparency Law, which has required the provision of this information on the number of people waiting for an operation. Since 2003, we only knew the national average, but not the information by region.
Inequalities between Autonomous Communities
Based on this information, we can draw the following conclusions:
- The Canary Islands is the worst in Spain, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (with 162 and 147 days of waiting time for surgery, respectively).
- At the other end of the scale are the Riojans and Basques, who are lucky enough to wait 46 and 49 days on average, in that order.
- Between December 2014 and June 2016, i.e. a year and a half, the number of Spaniards waiting for surgery increased by more than 50,000 people (reaching almost 570,000).
The data are very worrying, And the problem is that so far, we only seem to be getting worse.
What these data are like in Aragon
In the statistics, we could say that Aragon is in the upper-middle of the list. In other words, we do not do very well:
- In traumatology: we are the 4th worst Community, with 131 waiting days for this type of surgery.
- In general and digestive surgery: the 6th Autonomous Community in surgical waiting time, with an average of 85 days.
A pity to have to wait so long to get a diagnosis.
Waiting list including specialist referral
The data we are counting counts from the time when the need for surgery is prescribed until the surgery is completed. However, to this must be added, of course, the time that elapses from the time the general practitioner refers us to the specialist.
The national average waiting time, in this step from the family doctor to the specialist, is 49 days (although also with inequalities, given that in the Canary Islands it is 103 and in La Rioja 23).
The truth is that these are very worrying figures, which is why many people have taken to taking out health insurance. As we said recently, about 11.5 million people are already insured (20% of the population). -
If you want to know which is the health insurance that best suits your needs: for coverage, best specialists and cost, contact us. We have special agreements with the main health insurance companies.
