February 2020. The start of the pandemic that would change our lives had not yet arrived. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid’s community Since the previous summer, it announced the construction of 22 new health centers, although 14 of them had already been committed in previous legislatures. As the years went by, he promised more clinics, up to a total of 35. Of all of them, only three have been able to be inaugurated in the five years that Ayuso has been governing, all three at the end of 2023.
The deadlines for the remaining 32 to become a reality? The Ministry of Health does not dare to talk about dates, but it does indicate that four centers are under construction and that another four are about to begin, so he hopes that during this term he will be able to inaugurate at least eight. Infobae Spain has made an x-ray of the current situation of all the projects based on the information offered this week by the Ministry in the Health Commission of the Assembly.
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Let’s start with the 22 centers promised in 2020. As we have said, three have already opened, all by the end of 2023: Las Tablas in Madrid, Parque Oeste in Alcorcón and Navalcarnero II. The latter, for example, finally arrived in this municipality in the south of Madrid 20 years late because it was announced in 2003, when Esperanza Aguirre came to the Community. Then there are three others in the works: Monte Carmelo (northern neighborhood of Madrid), East Residentialin the town of Parla, and Butarque, in the Villaverde neighborhood. There is another in Móstoles, in PAU 4, whose works “are about to begin,” they explain from Health.
And there are ten others that Health specifies that “They are on their way to the Government Council” so that your tender is definitively approved. These are Barrio Hospital in Fuenlabrada, Valdebebas (in the north of the capital), Ensanche de Vallecas II, Valdemoro III, Soto del Henares in Torrejón de Ardoz, Cerro de los Gamos in Pozuelo, Shooting Range in Leganés, Valderribas in the district of Vicálvaro, Pinto II and Dehesa Vieja in San Sebastián de los Reyes.
Daniel Rubio, socialist deputy and member of the Health Commission, explains that there is a lack of money in the budgets for all these projects to go ahead. “At the moment there are 75.6 million, but 35 are for replacing furniture and other expenses. Taking into account that a health center can cost between four and seven million, the accounts don’t come out. Ayuso only wants press headlines announcing centers that later do not see the light of day. They inaugurated the one in Parque Oeste Alcorcón quickly, in March 2023, for the May elections, but it did not start operating until December,” denounces Rubio, who specifies that The average to build an outpatient clinic is 20 months. “If they meet the deadlines that they have said in the Commission, at most six will finish in this legislature and they will complete the reform of another two.”
Of the 22 centers that Ayuso promised in 2020, there are finally five others that continue in Barbecho. There are no deadlines for them. They have stopped being a priority for the Ministry. For three of them, Health simply points out that “they have not been ruled out,” although the president announced them four years ago. These are Cañaveral, Méndez Álvaro and Simancas, all in the capital. Then there are two that “are in drafting or reviewing the project”: Barrio de la Luna, in Rivas-Vaciamadrid; and Ensanche Sur, in Alcorcón.
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Antonio Cabrera, a primary care doctor in Madrid and member of the Primary Care (AP) Se Mueve group, which includes more than 1,100 Medicine and Pediatric physicians in this specialty, considers that it is essential to have more health infrastructure because the population has grown a lot in Madrid . “Many of these health centers have between 15 and 20 years getting engaged”, like that of Abrantes, in Carabanchel. “Investing in infrastructure means improving the conditions of primary care professionals so that they do not want to leave the Community of Madrid. But it is not only about building, which is important, but also about rehabilitate many of the existing centers.”
Following the list of 22 centers promised in 2020, Health has been including other projects, in total 13 more. Of them, there is only one under construction, that of Collado Villalba. There are two others whose construction work is about to begin: Villaviciosa de Odón and Guadarrama. In addition, there are six “Government Council paths” to approve their tenders: Quinta de Los Molinos, in the capital; El Molar, Fuencarral, Tielmes, Abrantes in Carabanchel and Puerta del Ángel, in La Latina. The one in San Isidro-15 de Mayo is in the project because it changes location, and finally there are three in the capital that Health has chosen to build under the industrialization system (Alameda Prado 30, Palma Norte and Villaamil) to shorten the deadlines and have them sooner. A kind of prefabrication.
Health remembers that “we have gone through a pandemic”, which has delayed some projects. “In a pandemic you could work and tender,” replies Daniel Rubio from the PSOE.
Isabel Vazquezmember of Primary Care of the AMYTS union, regrets that Health makes too many ads of centers that are going to open, but that later do not materialize into reality. Secondly, “we do not agree with the industrialized construction model for certain projects.” And he gives the example of the future Alameda clinic, next to the CaixaForum.
“An old relief house had been reserved to build this new health center, since the current one, for example, does not have access for the disabled. It seems that the building must be quite greedy for other things, since it is in the middle of Paseo del Pradoand they have chosen to make an industrialized prefabricated, or whatever they want to call it, we don’t really know where they are going to take it.
AMYTS also highlights the importance of reforming, in addition to building. “Summer is coming and there are many health centers without air conditioning system. I can assure you that the calls from our affiliates for queries that reach 30 degrees are massive. On the other hand, the Ministry has not had an occupational risk prevention plan for primary care for more than 29 years and, therefore, many of the centers do not meet the minimum conditions that they should have to operate as such.” AMYTS asks that these basic things be undertaken before launching into the construction of new centers.
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Apart from these 35 centers promised by Ayuso since 2020, Health has launched another six during the president’s term, but whose works began in previous legislatures: Arroyomolinos, Chapinería, Pezuela de las Torres, Valverde de Alcalá and, in Madrid capital, Baviera and Andrés Mellado.