SEVILLE, June 12. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Plenary Session of the Parliament of Andalusia approved this Wednesday the law creating the Andalusian Health Institute, an organization resulting from the merger of the Andalusian School of Public Health (EASP) and the Andalusian Public Foundation for Progress and Health, in addition to also bringing together a part of the structure of the Ministry of Health, the General Secretariat of Public Health and R&D&i in Health.
The text has received favorable votes from the PP-A, while Vox has abstained and the three left-wing groups, PSOE-A, Por Andalucía and Mixto-Adelante Andalucía, have voted against.
The Institute will adopt the legal form of an Administrative Agency and its nature will be a Public Research Organization. The Government emphasizes that this status of administrative agency makes it similar to national organizations such as the Carlos III Health Institute and the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC).
The Legal Cabinet of the Junta de Andalucía warned, in its report on this draft law, of a possible redundancy of the functions of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) itself and of this future body in its common status as administrative agencies, therefore who proposed “either suppressing or duly reducing the functions of the already existing agency (Andalusian Health Service).”
Of the entities that will make up the future Health Institute, the Andalusian School of Public Health is a commercial company with the majority participation of the Andalusian Government, while Progreso y Salud is a foundation.
The Andalusian Government, which approved the draft law in its session on October 17, 2023 and passed the full debate in Parliament on December 13, then indicated that the objectives of this body are to promote research, development , innovation, transfer, and entrepreneurship in health within the framework of the Andalusian Knowledge System and the Spanish System of Science, Technology and Innovation.
Other aspirations are the promotion of excellence in health care and professional development or the promotion of professional qualifications of health personnel.
The new Andalusian Health Institute will have the Andalusian School of Public Health, based in Granada, for aspects such as the generation and management of knowledge in the fields of public health and the management of health services; generate training, advisory, national and international cooperation and research processes, and create spaces for collaboration and networks that enable knowledge management, public health, the improvement of clinical, research and innovation competencies and the good governance of systems of health.
The Andalusian Government defends that the creation of the Andalusian Health Institute does not imply a budget increase. Its annual cost is expected to be 51.33 million, of which 31.73 will be contributed by the Junta de Andalucía and the remaining 19.63 is a forecast of income from its activities, according to the attached financial report.
The Board highlights that the Health Institute will coordinate the network of the Research Management Foundation of the Public Health System of Andalusia, an area where it points out that a budget close to 150 million euros per year is managed with more than 1,000 annual projects and more than 5,500 clinical studies.
According to data from the Andalusian Government, in 2022, 422 full-time researchers and 188 research technicians were working within the Health R&D&i System.
AMENDMENT OF THE PP: A DOUBLE HEADQUARTERS IN SEVILLE AND GRANADA
The creation of this organization and the location of its headquarters has been a controversial matter due to criticism from the opposition, which has pointed out the loss of an organization of recognized prestige in the field of research such as the Andalusian School of Public Health, in addition to its connection with Granada.
The Popular Group in the Andalusian Parliament has added an amendment to the bill to propose that the new body have “a headquarters in the city of Seville” to house “its governing, management and knowledge bodies”, as well as “another in the city of Granada, where those competent in training, consulting and collaboration with international organizations and institutions will be located.”
THE GROUPS
The Popular Party deputy Beatriz Jurado has defended that this bill will be “a fundamental tool to strengthen (the School of Public Health) and offer better benefits” to brandish “the desire to have an Institute of Public Health before the government ruled.” Popular Party”.
After highlighting that “the law guarantees that all workers will maintain the same working and remuneration conditions”, he recriminated “the Andalusian left, and especially the PSOE, which has worked hard to wage a political struggle against this law for being incapable of overcoming an ideology” and has proclaimed that the creation of the Andalusian Health Institute “will not mean the closure of the School or the research agreements, which will continue in force as long as it is integrated into the Health Institute”.
The socialist María Ángeles Prieto has stated that “today the Popular Party puts an end to 40 years of work by the School of Public Health, an institution of international prestige, the only collaborating center of the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the nine of this country”, a fact that he has attributed to “the arrogance, the foolish management of an absolute majority that imposes itself on the criteria of scientific societies”.
“We are not opposed to creating the Institute, but not at the expense of the School of Public Health,” stated Prieto, who pointed out that “Moreno Bonilla closes the only institution dedicated to public health,” while he proclaimed that ” Now it is time to defend public health, the independence of our studies” and has made “a call for resistance, to work with the social determinants of health”, among which he has pointed out profiles such as “the elderly, migrants, people who have suffered eviction”.
The Vox parliamentarian Cristina Jiménez has demanded that “the new Institute accommodate biomedical researchers”, as well as has raised “the need for the Granada center to be protected and not lose that international prestige”, convinced that “it has to be something more than the sum of what there is” and has asked that “it must grow in quality”, before proclaiming that “Granada has to be a reference in the School of Public Health and this cannot be lost” and asking that the future Andalusia Health Institute “be a lighthouse in R&D&I.”
The spokesperson for the Parliamentary Group for Andalusia, Inmaculada Nieto, has described “the painful process” behind this decision, which she has framed in that “this comes from the last legislature, at the request of Vox, that the PP assumed the supposed reduction of administrative entities”, while he has claimed “the excellence of the School, a collaborating partner of the World Health Organization, which has been hard earned in an exemplary career”, before indicating to the Popular Party that “in this adventure they are tremendously alone” and that this decision “has nothing to do with simplification and everything to do with the dogmatism of the Popular Party.”