Carlos Rus, president of ASPE.
The creation of one state agency dedicated to public health, approved by the Council of Ministers on August 23, has been welcomed with widespread optimism throughout the health sector. Also in the private health sector, which has “celebrated” an initiative in which it does not want to be a mere spectator. So much so, that the Spanish Private Health Alliance (ASPE) has already shown its interest in being included, at least at a consultative level, in one of the bodies established by the statutes.
On one side, the Draft Bill for the creation of a State Public Health Agency (Aesap) approved in the Council of Ministers on August 23 -concluded the process of consultation- establishes a obligation to public and private organizations to “provide information for the fulfillment of the purposes of the agency and to evaluate the state of preparation of the National Health System and the private sector” and states that the information to be provided will also be established in regulatory standards.
The president of ASPE, Carlos Rus, considers this measure “reasonable”, since in some way “it seeks to avoid the improvisation of the pandemic and the difficulties that have arisen regarding the provision of information by the autonomous communities, given the existing regulatory vacuum. Until now”.
However, it is noteworthy that when defining the purposes of the future Aesap private health sector involvement is not encouraged, as an integral part of the National Health System. Specifically, in the objective included in the draft that refers to “promoting networking with all the resources available in the General State Administration, regional and local administrations, academic and research entities, to articulate a comprehensive health policy , guaranteeing health security and addressing present and future challenges for public health in a solvent manner”.
Waiting for the first six months following its approval to be carried out, as established by law, the elaboration of the statutes that will regulate the organizational structure, with expression of the composition, functions, competences and administrative rank that corresponds to each body, ASPE trusts that the Ministry of Health will create an inclusive consultative body in which the private health sector is not left aside nor to any other agent that can provide useful information and experience when articulating preventive strategies in the face of public health emergencies.
One in three Covid patients treated
It should be remembered that one in three patients hospitalized for Covid in Spain was treated in private healthcare, either by insurance, mutual or derived from the public: 63,800 hospitalized out of 211,064 -with data as of December 31, 2020-, that is, 30.2%. In addition, 29% of those affected who have required care in the ICU (5,302 patients out of 18,251) were treated in private health centers.
“This type of data endorses our contribution in a health emergency of the magnitude that we have experienced,” recalls Carlos Rus, “which should be enough to be able to contribute our experience to any consultative body oriented to the health of the whole of the population,” he concludes.
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