The Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced this morning her intention to ban smoking on terraces. García defended that his department “is committed to following scientific evidence and eliminating smoke from spaces where it can be harmful,” and bar terraces are one of them. The minister recalled that Spain “has been avant-garde over the years in eliminating smoky spaces” and anticipated the predictable complaints from the hotel sector. “[Cuando se hizo otras veces] The world was going to collapse, the economy was going to collapse, but what we did was provide health spaces,” he assured.
The minister was interviewed by the director of elDiario.es, Ignacio Escolar, within the framework of the conference “Health of the future: innovation and trends”, during which experts from various fields of health will analyze throughout in the morning, hosted by journalists from this newspaper, the main advances and challenges facing the health field. Among other topics, we will talk about the emergence of artificial intelligence also in this field and the revolutionary applications that are being implemented, how to achieve a more responsible health system and the challenges faced by healthcare professionals. health in the field of mental health. health.
García was asked about the decision of some countries to ban smoking for people born after a certain year, with the aim of permanently eradicating tobacco in the medium and long term. The minister explained that this is a measure that she likes, but that now is not the time. “These are bets that I support, but we have to take it step by step, take progressive measures.”
And he explained that the ministry’s concern now focuses on the emergence of vaping devices, which particularly affect young people. “We now have a gateway to tobacco addiction through so-called innocent gadgets, but they do a lot of harm,” he began. “There was a time when smoking was out of fashion until these gadgets came along. We want to regulate to the most demanding extremes in health matters. Vaping is said to be less harmful than smoking, but if you think of vaping as de-escalating smoking, then it is a medical prescription.
Escolar also asked García about alcohol, a socially normalized drug. “Why only protect minors?”, the head of Health upped the ante. “Let’s start with minors, we even have a constitutional duty. But we want to educate. There is no right amount of alcohol, alcohol is the precursor to many diseases.
“If I have to choose a priority, it’s AP”
The minister began the discussion by explaining that the anti-smoking plan is one of the ministry’s priorities (“he had been unemployed for a long time”), but that if she was forced to choose one, she would stay in primary care (PC ), which usually means that she is the “entry door to the system” but that the minister – who has sufficient twice, it is the envy of many countries – prefers to call it “the heart of the system”.
García explained that the AP has deteriorated in recent years because of “a little bit of everything.” For “incompetence, for bad faith. “Those who do not believe in the public system have done their part to bring down the system,” he assured. What solution do you have? “He doesn’t have one, he has several,” he replied. But, highlighting one problem, he explained that a big part of it is “taking care of our professionals.” They don’t stay in primary care. There are communities that fail to retain even 40% of the MIR” once their residency is completed, he noted.
The minister also spoke about mental health, another major concern of the ministry. Without saying it in these terms, García explained that, to a large extent, mental health has an approach that goes beyond the limits of his ministry. If he had to choose one measure to improve the mental health of the population, he said, it would be the establishment of a “universal basic income”. Or even solve “the problem of housing rental, one of the nuclear problems”.
As for what concerns her ministry more strictly, the minister mentioned the role of anxiolytics in this health problem. Spain, Escolar reminded him, is one of the countries that consume the most anxiolytics and antidepressants. How to reduce these rates? “By emphasizing the social determinants of health,” replied the minister. “We may give anxiolytics, but we’re not going to solve the problem. Psychotropic medications work, I’m not saying they aren’t effective, but they need to be administered at the right time and for the right needs. » We can treat the problem occasionally, but if the cause is still there the problem will return.
This is why the minister is committed to “a much more global vision of mental health. We want there to be a link between mental health and work. That there is a line that connects poor working conditions and mental health. Anxiolytics are administered lightly, sometimes for social problems whose solution is not an anxiolytic,” he concluded.
García addressed other issues more briefly. He described as “perverse” the 24-hour guards on which the functioning of the system is based, and explained that he wanted to “update the framework statute”, which dates from 2003, because “the working day of health professionals “It cannot be a crusher of vocations and talents. » To also offer better care: “A patient will not be guaranteed to have all the talent or knowledge of this doctor at his service” if he has been working for 14 hours when he treats him.
The top health official also spoke about the increase in sexually transmitted infections among young people and reiterated the ministry’s commitment to a return to information campaigns and free distribution of condoms. As with tobacco, he also anticipated protests in this area. “Let’s see what the right decides, maybe it seems scandalous to them because we are going so far backwards… But it would seem quite sad to me if health care was used as another ideological battleground. There is a worrying increase in gonorrhea, syphilis… let’s get to work. »
Finally, García discussed the emergence of artificial intelligence and its impact on health. Garcia defends him
