First step to limit public-private collaboration

First step to limit public-private collaboration in the health system. The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday, at the request of the Ministry of Health, the preliminary draft of Law on Public Management and Integrity of the National Health System (SNS), that will repeal Law 15/1997, which allows public-private collaboration in healthcare, with the aim of limit this model and protect public health.

The Government’s health portfolio has been working on this regulation from 2024 and, last December, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, announced her intention to bring it to the Council of Ministers at the beginning of 2026, as a result of the controversy that arose in the Torrejón Hospital about alleged orders from the center’s concessionaire company to “increase its economic benefit.”

“It is a triumph of civil society, that will protect from the clutches of privatization”, García assured in his appearance after the Council of Ministers.

In this way, the new norm will not allow the Torrejón model, that of Alzira or that of the Jiménez Díaz Foundationgiving priority to the direct public management of health services and limiting the entry of for-profit companies in the management of public health. According to García, the objective is not to end public-private collaboration, but with the “misdeeds.”

After approval by the Council of Ministers, the new law will begin its processing, which will include the public consultation phase, return to the Council of Ministers for approval as a bill in the second round and, subsequently, will go to the Congress of Deputies.

Reaction from the Community of Madrid

For her part, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayusocriticized this Tuesday that the Government of Spain wants to “end” Madrid’s healthcare, in its objective of limiting public-private collaboration, and lead them “to the revolution” due to their “absolute obsession” with the region.

Díaz Ayuso considers that the Government acts “threatening, lying and imposing.” “They now want to put an end to health care in the Community of Madrid, practically leading us to revolution, to ensure that nothing works in a region that does not allow growth in inhabitants and that has to face a challenge such as aging,” he said.

Thus it has been asked if what they want to achieve is “end” the Jiménez Díaz Foundation and telling patients that they “are wrong when they choose” these hospitals. “What are they going to do in Catalonia, for example, where much more than in the Community of Madrid they work with this health model?” he exemplified.

That is why the president has criticized the Government for going “against what works” and want to “scare” with a proposal that he believes “will not go ahead” but that the “damage has already been done.”

“This is a region of freedom, of public-private collaboration and excellence,” claimed the Madrid president, who has stressed that what administrations have to do is “collaborate” with companies and people who have projects to “grow together”, in addition to pointing out that it is “insane to go against employment and against reality.”

In this way, the leader of the Madrid Executive has asked for “respect” for Madrid and the will of its citizens They are the ones who decide how their health, their education, their universities and their companies have to be managed.

“That’s why we believe in public-private collaboration and companies. Because they are at the service of the administrations, they can never be suspected or questioned, and even less so by those of us who have public powers,” he expressed.