The private hospital sector puffs out its chest: it has 42% of the mammographs, 52% of the MRIs and 32% of the CT scans, and its equipment would allow it to comply with the screening programs recommended by the EU
The private hospital sector it has 42% of the mammographers in Spain, with 52% of the magnetic resonances and 32% of the CT scans. Equipment that can help in the diagnosis and detection of cancer, ensures the Spanish Private Health Alliance (ASPE). As at the time it did with the waiting lists, the employer has launched an offer: collaborate with the National Health System to be able to reach the number of screening tests for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer that the European Union indicates is somewhat which, according to this entity, “is going to be really difficult to achieve in the current conditions of public health“.
ASPE refers to the European Plan to Fight Cancer which establishes that 90% of the population that meets the requirements to undergo a breast cancer screening testcervix or colorectal have access to said program from now to 2025. Also, remember that, in September 2022, the European Commission introduced a new approach with which it intends to increase the scope of early detection tests to more population and in more types of cancer, including lung cancer, prostate cancer and, under certain circumstances, gastric cancer.
“Specialists in oncology have already warned that the figures set by Europe are unaffordable in the current circumstances of public health,” says the employers’ association
It is then that the employers launch an alert: “Specialists in oncology have already warned that the figures set by Europe are unaffordable in the current circumstances of public health, also taking into account that the implantation of the screening programs is uneven in the Spanish territory and that there is little adherence on the part of the population, with the exception of breast cancer, which is better established and has greater participation by women”.
Offer your resources
After the alert, the offer. ASPE “appeals to the health authorities to use all the resources available in the National Health System, including those of the private health provision, in order to comply with the European mandate, taking into account the special relevance early detection of cancer in order to save lives“. The private hospital sector, shells, counts with 42% of the mammographers in Spainwith 52% of the magnetic resonances and 32% of the CT scans, which can help in the diagnosis.
Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Andalusia, Madrid and the Valencian Community have reinforced public-private collaboration to deal with waiting lists, recalls ASPE
The employers’ association of private hospitals points out that they currently “carry out a significant number of preventive tests for breast, cervical and colon and rectal cancer“. And he considers that, having his resources -that is, doing cancer screenings from public health to private- would be “a relief” for the public system and “a benefit” for groups at risk. In addition, it is positioned in early detection lung cancer – the fourth most frequent in Spain and the one that causes the most deaths, according to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) -, prostate cancer, the most frequent in men, and gastric cancer, the fourth deadliest in our country.
To highlight the benefit what it would mean to use their resources, ASPE indicates that most of the autonomous communities have implanted cancer screening programs, although, he reports, “the speed is uneven, as is the adherence of the population”. For this reason, he insists, to achieve the European objectives “it will be necessary to have more material means and a greater number of professionals”.
The sector puffs out and returns to the “worrying waiting lists for surgery and specialized care.” In this context, he cites various regional governments “that rely on the private health infrastructure to try to reduce waiting times for care.” he points to Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Andalusia, Madrid and the Valencian Community which, they say, have strengthened public-private collaboration to deal with this problem.