Monster demonstration in Madrid to defend the public hospital

SPAIN – They denounce the “mistreatment of professionals and patients”. Several hundred thousand people marched this Sunday, February 12 in Madrid during a new demonstration in defense of the public health system in the Spanish capital region, undermined for months by the lack of manpower and means.

The demonstrators, including many caregivers, met to the sound of drums and whistles in different points of the capital before converging on the town hall, as you can see and hear in the Tweet video below. The banners also read: “Health is not sold, it is defended”noted AFP.

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1 million demonstrators according to the organizers

Numbering 250,000 according to the prefecture, and almost a million according to the organizers, they demanded “more resources” to the regional government of Madrid and its president Isabel Diaz Ayuso, accused of favoring private providers to the detriment of public service.

As evidenced by the photos and videos of the tweets belowpeople from Madrid have invaded the streets and there are few deserted m2 in the Town Hall Square.

“In Spain, the public health system was very good. But in recent years, it has deteriorated sharply, especially since the pandemic”notes Ana Santamaria, a resident of Madrid who came to parade with a friend, Susana Bardillo. “To get an appointment, you now have to wait weeks. As a result, people go to the emergency room, which is completely overwhelmed”abounds with the latter.

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This demonstration, convened by collectives of inhabitants, is the third of great magnitude organized for three months in the Spanish capital, after that of January 15 and especially of November 13, which had gathered 200,000 people, according to the prefecture.

Of the “endless waiting lists”

It comes as part of the doctors in public establishments in the capital have been on strike since November 21, at the call of the main doctors’ union in Madrid (Amyts), to demand better working conditions and salary increases. .

“There are endless waiting lists. We can’t keep up”explains Maite Lopez, a nurse in the public, who is demonstrating to be “finally heard”. “The situation is dramatic”she laments, “We can’t take good care of patients”.

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The discontent vis-à-vis the failures of the health system has affected in recent months other regions in Spain, a very decentralized country where the regional authorities have control over public health. But it is in Madrid that the movement is strongest.

The president of the region denounces “fake news”

The community of Madrid is in fact in the penultimate position of the 18 Spanish regions in terms of investment in public health, with 1,491 euros per year and per inhabitant, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health dating from 2020.

A situation considered paradoxical, Madrid being the richest region of Spain. “It’s a shame that with so much wealth, access to quality public health care is not guaranteed”regretted in the demonstration Pepe Alvarez, general secretary of the UGT, one of the main Spanish unions.

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Figure of the People’s Party (PP) and representative of the Spanish hard right, the president of the Madrid region Isabel Diaz Ayuso has repeatedly accused the demonstrators of being motivated by interests “politics”denying any desire to weaken the public health system. “We have never allocated so much money to public health” in the region, she assured Thursday, denouncing « fake news » against him.

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