The Government of Spain mobilises over €446 million for the Primary and Community Care Action Plan 2022-2023

As Minister Darias explained, the funds already approved under the Action Plan itself, charged to the PGE, and those of the regional governments and cities, amount to €172 million, and are specified in the comprehensive regional projects presented to improve the situation of primary care in their territories.

This Action Plan, the outcome of the Gran Canaria Declaration of 1 October 2021, is aimed at improving the comprehensive approach to the most frequent health problems, the necessary resources, organisation and the active participation of professionals and patients, among others.

In addition to this funding, €230 million have been earmarked for the digitalisation of Primary Care, through the PERTE 'Salud de Vanguardia', and €44 million for the new Oral Health Plan.

Future challenges

The minister reiterated the Government of Spain's commitment to the new challenges facing Primary and Community Care, such as in the field of Specialised Healthcare Training where, she added, measures that promote the attraction of talent to the speciality of Family and Community Medicine must be a priority for inclusion in the action plans.

In this regard, Darias announced that the Ministry of Health is already working on updating the training programme for the speciality of Family and Community Medicine and the accreditation requirements for the Teaching Units, with the aim of increasing the training time in health centres and adapting the accreditation requirements to the training needs, thereby guaranteeing the quality of the training.

It has also advanced the development of actions that guarantee the coverage of vacancies in rural areas through incentive measures that contribute to professional development.

Equity, Participation and Professional Stability

The Minister for Health has highlighted some of the measures implemented by the Government of Spain to improve and strengthen Primary Care in our country. This is the case of the draft law amending various regulations that consolidate equity, universality and cohesion in the National Health System.

Thanks to this regulation, in addition to extending and returning entitlements to citizens and making new health co-payments impossible, the participation of patients, people with disabilities and health professionals in the main discussion forums of the NHS is protected, through the Open Health Forum.

In the same vein, he referred to the comprehensive reform undertaken by the Government of Spain to reduce temporary employment in the National Health System, with a process -the largest in the history of the system - which will lead to the stabilisation of 67,000 health professionals.

Minister Darias recalled that this process also provides a new legal framework that places limits on temporary work, through the modification of the Framework Statute for health personnel.

Non official translation