‘Leave hospital management to professionals’ call

OUT-OF-WORK politicians should not run hospitals, it was recently suggested.

“We don’t want hospitals that are employment agencies for jobless politicians,” said Joaquin Estevez, president of Health managers’ association, Sedisa.

He was addressing the 19th National Hospitals and Health Management Conference attended by 3,000 professionals in Alicante City and Elche.

According to Sedisa, approximately a quarter of the directors at Spanish hospitals are politicians without management experience. “We’ve been telling the authorities about this situation for years but in some autonomous regions good intentions are no more than fine words,” Estevez said.

“If politicians owned the hospitals they would not take on their friends from the party to run them, they would put in professionals because they would want financial and care benefits.”

“A far-reaching agreement was needed and Health should stop being used as a weapon,” Estevez declared. 

Spain’s legislation on Health is outdated, it creates inflexibility and inefficiency but also prevents adequate use of human resources, he said.

Spain also provided the best portfolio of services in Europe at the lowest cost to users, he reminded those present.