Approximately every nine and a half minutes, an Osakidetza user files a complaint or formalizes a claim at a hospital or outpatient clinic. Before the pandemic, in 2019, the average was more than a quarter of an hour. Dissatisfaction with the quality of the Basque health service continues to grow. From January to September 2024, there were 41,881 incidents, 16% more than the same period in 2023 and 28% more than in 2022.
According to two data tables provided to the Basque Parliament by the Minister of Health, Alberto Martínez, in response to an initiative by Rebeka Ubera of EH Bildu, in the last twelve months – from October 2023 to September 2024 – there are had 10,870 complaints. and 45,919 complaints, 56,789 in total and 41,881 taking into account only this year’s data, since January. This figure far exceeds the 36,060 in 2023 and the 32,691 in 2022. Moreover, it is significantly higher than the data from 2017 to 2021, even when taking into account the full years. For example, in the whole of 2021, 34,956 such cases were recorded. So far in 2024, January and May have been the months with the most complaints, more than a thousand. In January, May and June, the 4,000 monthly claims were also exceeded, which also happened in November and December 2023.
Data analysis shows that there are now 152 complaints or claims per day. The maximum before COVID-19 was 98 in 2018. Since 2022, this figure has already exceeded the 100 mark. The other side of the coin is congratulations. Every day, five people thank the care provided by Basque public health professionals. There are 1,770 communications of this type between October 2023 and September 2024, again according to official data. Data shows that this indicator is not at its peak, although it has also increased since before the pandemic.
During a media meeting held in October in Bilbao, the new Minister of Health, Alberto Martínez, made some comments on citizens’ perception of Osakidetza. He pointed out, for example, that the Basques have “high attendance”, that is to say, they attend a health center or hospital much more than the average and that they do so with “expectations and high standards.
In a context where all the investigations have elevated the state of public health to one of the main problems in Euskadi with housing, the Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, has also embarked on the path of seeking an agreement with the opposition, unions and other agents to restore prestige to Osakidetza. “We have a goal, that Basque society feels proud every time it walks through the door of a health center,” he celebrated during the investiture debate.
From EH Bildu, on the contrary, we understand that “the official data on complaints and claims reflect the deterioration that Osakidetza has experienced in recent years.” “In 2023, the number of claims was greater than ever, 40,000, and this year, looking at the data until September, it will be even worse in this sense because, in the absence of accounting data October, November and December, everything indicates that this threshold of 40,000 complaints will be exceeded,” underlines Ubera, health spokesperson.
And he adds: “The high number of complaints and claims from Osakidetza users confirms that the transformation that we have been demanding for a long time at EH Bildu is necessary in the public health system to improve the quality of care. And for this, to carry out this transformation and improvement of health services, it is essential that the opinions, experiences and requests of users of the system are taken into account.
