Remember the Applause for the Healthcare Workers?
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| 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 11th 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.
