THE Community of Madrid will spend €128.1 million on providing home respiratory therapies, such as oxygen therapy, aerosols and nebulizers, and other assisted ventilation techniques.
This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health led by Fátima Matute, after the Governing Council authorized, at its meeting this week, the tender for a new contract, which will be valid for five years.
These Madrid public health resources are aimed at asthma patients, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sleep apnea and other pulmonary pathologies who can receive this treatment at home.
The initiative represents, according to the Community of Madrid itself, a significant improvement in their quality of life and, at the same time, reduces the number of hospitalizations. Last year, 54,070 people residing in the region benefited from this service, which represented an increase of 21% compared to 2022.
This increase also resulted in a reduction in beneficiaries’ visits to the emergency room. Likewise, precise and effective options are offered to them, allowing them to benefit from comprehensive health care without traveling.
Now what the Community of Madrid wants to do is increase the number of beneficiaries and, therefore, it has increased the budgetary allocation for this service.
“This type of treatment is always carried out on medical prescription; it is the doctor who decides which one is suitable for each patient and sets the oxygen administration parameters individually, in addition to the duration of the intervention,” indicated the department. .
Living addicted to light
The lives of patients benefiting from this type of respiratory therapy at home are very complex because, in addition to the cost of the devices that the Community of Madrid will now finance, they live “addicted” to light.
This situation makes the energy bill a problem for the pockets of a large number of these patients who, on several occasions, have requested social premiums in the form of co-payment, because they consider that it is one medicine among others.
From the Association of COPD Patients (APEPOC) They explained to EL ESPAÑOL that more than 300,000 people in Spain need concentrated oxygen to survive because of the lung disease they suffer from, COPD.
Depending on the severity of the disease, the association assures that there are patients whose need for oxygen therapy can be up to 24 hours a day, although the average is between 12 and 17 hours.
