Madrid reduced the total number of patients waiting in 2025

The last year has meant a change in trend for health waiting lists in the Community of Madrid (CAM) since 2025 has closed with a significant reduction in the volume of people pending care, breaking a barrier that had remained practically immovable for much of the year.

An advance that acquires greater relevance as it has occurred in parallel to a increase in demand and that refutes the debate raised about the capacity of the Madrid organizational model to sustain this trend in the coming years. According to the data of the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) At the end of December 2025, a total of 977,577 people were in a structural waiting situation (patients awaiting care with an active clinical indication and availability to be treated), in the entire Madrid health system, which includes surgical waiting lists, outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests. The data represents a reduction of 40,070 patients compared to January when there were more than one million (1,017,647). This is a very positive evolution in accessibility to the health system in a context of a high increase in healthcare pressure.

In detail, broken down by healthcare settings, the number of patients on the surgical waiting list (LEQ) in December stood at 80,883 people; in external consultations, in 711,810; and in diagnostic tests, in 184,884. Beyond the absolute figures, the evolution of waiting times reinforces a positive reading of the year. Throughout 2025, decreases in care times have been recorded in both outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests, while in the surgical field, times have remained stable, avoiding spikes. Specifically, surgical waiting lists remained without relevant variations, despite the strong increase in demand, while waiting times decreased significantly in outpatient consultations, with almost four days less (-3.68 days), and in diagnostic tests, where the reduction was close to nine days (-8.82 days).

From the organizational point of view, this result is linked to the public-private management model that governs the Community of Madrid, which allows a redistribution of the clinical burden within the health network thanks to the free choice. A right that contributes significantly to alleviating waiting lists throughout the system without giving up public coverage of care.

In fact, mixed management hospitals have led the shortest delays in care throughout 2025, both in the surgical waiting list and in outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests, a position that the latest December data from Sermas once again confirms. Specifically, on the surgical waiting list, the hospitals with the least delay in December were four concession centers: Villalba General Hospitalwith 17.21 days; he King Juan Carlos University Hospital, with 22.48 days; he Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital, with 27.18 days; and the Infanta Elena University Hospitalwith 27.44. All of them with an average wait of less than a month for a surgical intervention.

In external consultations the same pattern was repeated. The Infanta Elena University Hospital stood out again, with an average delay of 25.37 days; the General Hospital of Villalba, with 25.92 days; the Jiménez Díaz Foundation, with 27.57 days; and the Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital, with 28.63; all of them belonging to the Quirónsalud group.

In diagnostic tests, the Torrejón University Hospital was in the lead in December, with a delay of 15.46 days. They were followed by the Central Hospital of the Red Cross San José and Santa Adela, (the only hospital with entirely public ownership and direct management) among the first positions, with 23.08 days; the Infanta Elena University Hospital, with 23.89 days; and the General Hospital of Villalba, with 30.27 days.

The data reflects that the mixed management hospitals Far from weakening the Madrid public system, they are decisive for it to be efficient. In practice, they not only maintain the best indicators in the region, but also contribute to making the Madrid average the most favorable in all of Spain. According to the latest national data from the Waiting List System (SISLE) The Community of Madrid leads, by a wide margin, the main waiting list indicators. It has the shortest surgical delay in the National Health System with an average time of 49 days, compared to the Spanish average of 118, and it is the region where the fewest patients wait more than six months, only 0.5% compared to 61.8% nationally.

The same occurs in external consultations, where Madrid combines a very high volume of activity with significantly shorter delays than those of the country as a whole, positioning itself as one of the most decisive systems in this area. In a national context where patients wait an average of 96 days to be seen by a specialist, in the CAM the figure is reduced to 63 days, which is more than a month less waiting time (33 days).