La gran paradoja de la sanidad pública españolaUna consideración obligada

Abstract

The public health constitutes one of the pillars of the social welfare of any modern society. The aim of this work consists of showing the existence of a great paradox in the Spanish public system of health, given the fact that, from this point of view, is a country situated in the 8º place among 195 countries in the world, and at the same time has a disastrous, unjust, and inefficient health labour market. We know that behind a paradox there is always an enigma, and sometimes is also true that “the verity solution of the enigma is that there is not enigma at all”. On this basis, and after the introduction, we address the following sections: the labour market in Spain and its problems, a brief reference to the weight of public health in the Spanish economy, an overview of the number of registered health professionals, an analysis of the National Health System as a fundamental axis of public health in our country, the many and serious problems existing in the peculiar “chosen” contract model for public health professionals,-the central part of our work-, the evaluation of the quality and efficiency of Spanish public health and its control, and finally a return to the paradox and the underlying enigma in this so transcendental problem in order to give a convincing answer or explanation.