Ceuta and Melilla, very dissatisfied with their public health

The public health of Ceuta and Melilla suspense hovers, according to a study carried out by Ipsos among the resident population in both autonomous cities. Specifically, 40% of Melilla residents and 33% of Ceuta residents declare themselves “very dissatisfied” with its operation.

This level of dissatisfaction is reflected in the patterns of use of the public health system. The use of the system is mainly concentrated in Primary Care, with monthly employment of 20% in Ceuta and 27% in Melilla, while specialized and hospital care is noticeably lower.

Thus, more than 60% of the Ceuta and Melilla population affirm not going “almost never” to specialized care from the public system, percentages that rise to 75% in Ceuta and 84% in Melilla in the case of hospital care.

According to the results of the study, this pattern of use is associated with perceived difficulties in accessing health services, linked to factors such as delays in careaccess barriers and waiting lists, especially at the most complex levels of care in the public health system in both territories.

Public health in Ceuta and Melilla is managed through the National Institute of Health Management (Ingesa), an organization attached to the Ministry of Health, unlike the rest of the autonomous communities, where health management is transferred to the regional governments.

Obsolete system

The detailed analysis of the different aspects of public health shows that levels of citizen dissatisfaction are mainly associated with the assessment of certain elements of the system’s functioning.

The director of Public Opinion at Ipsos, Silvia Bravo, indicated that “waiting times for medical consultations, diagnostic tests or surgical interventions are the worst valued aspect: 66% in Ceuta and 59% in Melilla rate them negatively. The availability of resources, technology and the digitalization of care also receive unfavorable evaluations.”

Added to this are the perceived difficulties in accessing healthcare professionals, understood as administrative and organizational accessibility, one of the areas with the highest level of negative evaluation in both cities, with 41% of unfavorable opinions in Melilla and 30% in Ceuta.

human factor

In contrast to these aspects, the elements related to health personnel concentrate the most favorable evaluations.

In Ceuta, the training of nursing staff and the personal treatment received get a 73% and 76% positive evaluationsrespectively, while the training of doctors reaches 65% of ratings above 7. In Melilla, the same aspects stand out with similar figures.

The overall average rating of the public health system is 5.4 out of 10 in Ceuta and 4.9 in Melilla, reflecting a citizen perception that ranges between an adjusted pass and a fail, according to the scale used in the study.

The study on the ‘Perception of public health in Ceuta and Melilla’ has been carried out by Ipsos using CATI methodology (by telephone), with a sample of 400 representative interviews of the population over 18 years of age residing in both places.