Remember the Applause for the Healthcare Workers?

Stoke the fear, Reap the rewards

Deep in the pandemic, people vented their frustration and showed their support out their windows every evening at 8pm. Where is that support now. This week's Camino a Ítaca looks at the  dangerous slide towards privatizing a world class health system. Click over to read the original piece in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation before. (PDF en castellano abajo).

One of my first experiences with the Spanish health service was as a teacher rather than a patient. A group of differing specialists were some of my very first students in Caceres and our classes were held in San Pedro de Alcantara hospital. One day class happened to coincide with a high level event being held across the street in the San Francisco complex and security was tight.

This was during the aftermath of the September 11^th attacks and events like these saw more security than ever. Security checkpoints were everywhere and the pulmonologist from the group was sent out to lead me through the successive security cordons.

We progressed through the various rings of police when we were stopped inside the hospital by the Guardia Civil and told that I didn’t have the proper access and could go no further.

At this, the pulmonologist became livid, “What do you mean our teacher can’t pass? He’s obviously no terrorist. Why don’t you stop someone who is actually doing something wrong? Like that guy over there!” At this he pointed towards a patient, complete in his hospital gown, smoking directly under a sign forbidding it.

Things have changed a lot since that rather uncomfortable moment. Smoking is no longer ubiquitous and you can’t conceive of someone smoking in a public place in front of a police officer, let alone in a hospital. True, it’s still never entirely clear which laws will be overlooked or ignored, but smoking in public thankfully isn’t one of them.

What hasn’t changed is the professionalism and dedication of our healthcare workers. Heaven forbid that anyone should fall ill or be injured abroad, but in the case that they are, they very soon appreciate just how skilled those who work here really are.

Unfortunately, what has changed is the support they receive from the public administration. Madrid may get all the negative press about their deteriorating, increasingly privatized health service, but when was the last time you tried to get an appointment with your doctor?

Long gone are the days when you could get an appointment the same day or the next at the latest. Now waits of four, five days, even a week are the norm. And that is if you don’t live in towns like Guadalupe, where there is an acute lack of specialists.

Spain’s world class health service was one of the initial attractions that made me realize just how high the quality of life is here. It’s a service that directly affects everyone regardless of their political leanings. Even if you do have enough to pay for private health insurance, when things get serious, it’s often the public health service that ends up saving lives.

The private healthcare giants are, however, devious and have infiltrated both major parties. In doing so, they have pushed for this deterioration of services across the country. A move which has directly translated into record numbers for them.

Public health is a question of equality. Unless we wish to be forced to run #GoFundMe campaigns to help pay for cancer treatments as they do in America, in the upcoming elections support the party that makes public healthcare a genuine commitment.