Spain is working on the national health master plan called “Componente 18”. It includes a series of measures to improve the capacity of the health system in Spain. With this plan, Spain also wants to be better prepared for future pandemics.
The Spanish government wants to invest €1.069 billion in the health master plan presented by Health Minister Darías last Tuesday. The government can make this investment thanks to the plan for recovery, transformation and resilience in accordance with the guidelines for the implementation of the European recovery funds until 2023.
There are six plans within one master plan for a stronger healthcare system in Spain.
INVEAT plan (€792.1million)
According to Spain’s Ministry of Health, many healthcare centres currently have outdated equipment. In addition, the number of devices available per million inhabitants in Spain is significantly lower than in the rest of the European Union. For this reason, the Ministry wants to invest in newer and high-tech equipment.
Preventive health care (€62.05million)
According to WHO studies, 22% of Spaniards smoke on a daily basis. This part of the plan includes more information about the consequences of smoking and the use of alcohol. Plus, more attention will be paid to healthy eating and living habits. The use of antibiotics is also being denounced, and more attention is being paid to mental health.
Additional capacity to respond to health crisis (€80.91million)
Spain currently has nearly 80,000 deaths from Covid-19. For this reason, Spain will investigate the additional capacity needed – manpower and technology – in order to be able to respond faster and more adequately in the future, should a new pandemic or healthcare crisis threatens. Various hospitals and care coordinators are joining forces for this.
Extra training and more knowledge sharing within healthcare (€13.14million)
Spain will invest more in educating and training healthcare personnel. Money and resources will also become available to share more knowledge. Healthcare workers deserve more appreciation and better income. The government will work to give people who are currently working in healthcare on a permanent basis. The government also wants better working conditions for all healthcare personnel.
Optimising medication use in Spain (€20.8million)
Spain also wants to invest in better processes for the use of medication. Medication is the second largest expenditure item on the Health Budget, after expenditure on a hospital visit. Spain therefore also wants to optimise the consumption of medicines and improve and streamline the evaluation of medicines.
Better and central storage of data (€100million)
Finally, the government wants to promote a global project of digital transformation in healthcare. This should make the exchange of medical data easier. Autonomous Communities, the Ministry of Health and both private and public health centers process a huge amount of data on a daily basis. To simplify and accelerate data exchange between health services, it needs to be centralised.
