The Junta de Andalucía has set itself a double objective for this year 2024 in terms of health care: reduce the waiting list for generics for surgical procedures by 18% and the number of late patients by 60% while waiting for an operation. To achieve these objectives before December 31, a shock plan has been put in place with strengthening public health and new health agreements.
A month before the end of the set deadline, the data presented by the Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Rocío Hernández, to Parliament shows that the measures have succeeded in improving the data, although at the moment they are not sufficient to achieve the objectives. “We continue to work with this objective», They emphasize from this department.
Concretely, at the end of November, the number of patients on waiting lists for a surgical intervention represents 126,635 peoplewhich represents a reduction of 12% compared to the 142,507 recorded at the end of 2023. The objective is to achieve a reduction of 18%.
Concerning patients who are outside the deadlines set by the health decree, at this time The figure stands at 34,999 people, according to SAS data. Compared to December 31, 2023, this represents a reduction of 18,000 people, or 34%. The target set in this case was a reduction of 60%.
Finally, SAS data confirms that average wait times that Andalusians must endure to access surgery They amount to 125 days, or 22 less than at the end of last year when they were around 147 days.
“Even though the population to be served is larger, more operations are performed and more care is provided than six years ago.. During the first ten months of this year, more than 300,000 surgical procedures were performed, representing an increase of 17% compared to the same period of 2018.
The Andalusian public health system has experienced “significant growth” over the past six years, currently serving 20% more users than in 2018, according to the Council. Outpatient consultations carried out from January to October this year also increased by 20.44%with 12.9 million carried out, compared to 2018 and diagnostic tests by 4.45%, with 9.9 million carried out”, explained the Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs, Rocío Hernández, during her appearance at the Parliament.
The advisor also highlighted the strengthening measures that have been adopted in recent years: “There are 4,500 more doctors than six years ago in staffing and, in addition, primary care consultations in family medicine increased from 39,011,382 in 2018 to 40,568,245 in 2023; while in nursing, it increased from 22,809,214 consultations in 2018 to 27,791,044 in 2023.
