With the specific objectives of “promoting the training and development of management teams in Euskadi” and “leading the push for the professionalization of management teams and Health Management”, the Spanish Society of Health Directors (SEDISA) created at the end July 2023 the Territorial Group of Euskadi. The society of managers recognizes that its strategy is aimed at “influencing health policy” and “creating management doctrine” for the “transformation of the health system.”
To this end, so far SEDISA has hired up to ten Osakidetza executives. The vice presidency in the Basque territory is Mariluz Marqués, manager of the OSI Ezkerraldea-Enkarterri-Cruces and married to the former Health Minister of the Basque Government Jon Darpón, who directs the private health group Keralty in the company of another former Health Minister, Jon Azua, along with two former vice-counselors of the Basque Health Service and a former Director General of the Extremadura Health Service.
The lobby for the “transformation of the health system” has signed up to ten Osakidetza executives, in addition to Mikel Álvarez, former member of the PNV in Bilbao and strong man of the Mondragon group
The rest of the senior officials are: Maribel Romo (Deputy Director of Quality and Information Systems at Osakidetza); Jesús Manuel Suárez (Manager of the OSI Uribe). Vicente Fernández (Managing Director of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Santurtzi); Itziar Larrea (Managing Director of the Santa Marina Hospital); Fernando Encinar (Economic and Financial Director of the Araba University Hospital); Alejandra Gil (Medical Director at the Basurto University Hospital); Edurne Omaetxebarria (Medical Director at OSI Ezkerraldea Enkarterri Cruces); and David Cantero (Medical Director at OSI Barrualde Galdakao).
Although the absolute majority of SEDISA’s signings are Osakidetza directors, another of the members of the Territorial Group of Euskadi is Mikel Álvarez, former member of the PNV in Bilbao and strong man of the Mondragon group in the plans to lead the “improvement” of Osakidetza promised by the future Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales. Álvarez, former manager of Osakidetza hospitals such as Cruces and Basurto, is also a member of the SEDISA Advisory Council.
SEDISA has hired Víctor Bustamante, cousin of the former Minister of Health Nekane Murga, to write a report that the platforms in defense of public health in Euskadi attribute to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and private health
Among other relevant connections to understand how the influence of this lobby in favor of health privatization is being exerted, highlights Víctor Bustamante, Assistance Director of Osakidetza. The cousin of the former Minister of Health Nekane Murga has collaborated with SEDISA in the preparation of the report The healthcare we want in 2025.
Bustamante himself gave an interview to publicize the report and which, published on two pages by the newspaper The mail, carried a headline with a premonitory phrase about the objectives of this looby: “the health system needs changes.” In response to the report, members of the Coordinator of Citizen Platforms in Defense of Public Health in Euskadi, pointed out that “perhaps the explanation lies in the fact that the SEDISA association, which it represents, is a foundation with a lot of participation from health managers. private and pharmaceutical industry
“Throughout his speech floats that idea so in vogue today of public-private collaboration as a paradigm of efficiency and modernity,” the organization also noted. So much so that among SEDISA’s protective partners and collaborating entities are Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Roche, Novartis and Medtronic, to name the most controversial brands.
SEDISA connections with Osakidetza and Osasunbidea
The relations between SEDISA and the Health Department of the Basque Government have been strengthened over the last decade. In 2013, the then Minister of Health of the Basque Government, Jon Darpón, inaugurated the XVIII National Congress of Hospitals and Health Management held in Bilbao, organized by SEDISA with the collaboration of Osakidetza.
Ten years later, also in Bilbao, the XII National SEDISA Conference was inaugurated by the Minister of Health of the Basque Government, Gotzone Sagardui. Shortly after, in October 2022, Sagardui was invited by SEDISA to give a conference in Madrid on “Quality, Innovation and Efficiency in Health”.
But the relations between Osakidetza and SEDISA officials go further. The founder of SEDISA and honorary president, Joaquín Estévez, was director of the Hospital de Nuestra Señora de Aránzazu in Donostia of the Basque Health Service. Estévez became a member of that team that laid the foundations for the privatization of Osakidetza through the Osasuna Zainduz plan, led in the 90s by counselor Iñaki Azkuna and the Director of Health Planning and Management Rafa Bengoa. years later Health Minister and currently a consultant who advises the Madrid Health Service.
In 2015, SEDISA signed Gregorio Achutegui, former managing director of the Hospital de Cruces and known for leading the ranking of the highest remunerations received by senior officials at Osakidetza, as an honorary partner.
The former Head of Public Health at the Secretary of State for Health also held the direction of the Quirón Clinics in Donostia and Bilbao, a private group that represents one of the greatest threats to public health in Gipuzkoa and where a former Health Minister of the Basque Government works. , Gabriel Inclán.
It is not the only Basque connection with SEDISA. Jon Guajardo, in turn manager of the Barrualde Galdakao OSI of the Basque Health Service, is the second vice president of the Board of Directors.
Furthermore, in 2015, SEDISA signed as an honorary partner Gregorio Achutegui, former managing director of the Hospital de Cruces who at the time topped the ranking of the remuneration of senior officials at Osakidetza thanks to the increase in productivity incentives implemented in the stage of Rafa Bengoa as Health Minister. Achutegui, former director of Health in Gipuzkoa, was managing director of the Navarrese Health Service between 2020 and 2023, so he will have to appear in the investigation commission of the “Koldo case”.
The Feijóo family in charge
11 years ago, in 2013, coinciding with the first white wave against the privatization of Health in Madrid, 322 professionals organized in the Health Center Management Team Platform. Meanwhile, the Spanish Society of Health Directors (SEDISA) served as “lobby to corporatize healthcare”.
According to Audita Sanidad, in 2016 the Madrid Ministry of Health awarded some 207 contracts to the partners and collaborating entities of SEDISA for a total amount of 189 million euros, 23.52% of the total awarded to health lobbies.
According to a study by the Audita Sanidad platform, in 2016, the Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid awarded, through public tender, some 207 contracts for a total amount of 189 million euros to the protective partners and collaborating entities of SEDISA, on the 23rd, 52% of the total services awarded to companies belonging to lobbyists. In 2020, there were 452 contracts for 329.5 million, according to a publication on the website of the Basque association for the right to health OSALDE.
Another privatization reform of the PP similar to that of Madrid and also promoted in 2013, in this case within the Galician Health Service, met the demands of “corporateizing” health centers through management based on public-private collaboration raised by SEDISA, an entity to which positions from the Galician public health service (Sergas) already belonged at that time, such as Ramón Ares, director of Care Processes of the Integrated Management Management of A Coruña, and Mario González González, manager of the Vigo hospital.
In this regard, the until recently controversial manager of the health area of Santiago and Barbanza, Eloína Núñez, continues to be a member of the Board of Directors of SEDISA and in turn is the cousin of the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, former head of the Galician Health Service. and former Secretary General of Health Care of the Spanish Government.
The influence of this organization is not limited to Euskadi, Navarroa, Madrid or Galicia, it also reaches other public health services. The until recently patron of Innovation and Projects at SEDISA, César Pascual, has been Health Minister of Cantabria since July of last year. Rafael López, member of the Board of Directors of SEDISA, was Regional Health Manager of Castilla y León. Another member of the Board, Conrado Domínguez, held the position of Director of the Canarian Health Service.