This Friday, the plenary session of the Parliament of Navarra urged the regional Government to implement the necessary measures to comply with the maximum waiting periods established in the provincial law on waiting guarantees in Specialized Care. These waiting periods are a maximum of 30 days for a first appointment with the specialist (10 days in the case of a preferential consultation); 120 days waiting time, maximum, for surgical procedures; and a maximum of 45 days of waiting for scheduled non-urgent diagnostic tests.
It is one of the resolutions approved in a monographic plenary session dedicated to health that the Parliament of Navarra held this Friday at the proposal of the PPN.
The resolution regarding compliance with the deadlines has been presented by UPN and has had the unanimous support of the Chamber. In total, 16 resolutions have been presented for this debate and ten of them have been approved. Neither of the two resolutions presented by the PP nor any of the three presented by Vox has received the necessary support.
Specifically, a second UPN resolution has been approved to request compliance with the regional order to reorganize the Breast Cancer Prevention Program in Navarra.
A joint resolution by PSN, Geroa Bai and Contigo-Zurekin has also been passed that calls for “promoting innovation through the acquisition of new equipment and techniques through the Innovative Public Procurement (IPP) processes and developments based on Artificial Intelligence.”
Another joint motion of the three groups, also approved, calls for “increasing accessibility to health care through telemedicine in its multiple applications thanks to the development of new technologies and the training of health and non-health professionals.”
The PSN has presented a resolution, which has been successful, urging the Government of Navarra to make available to the public company Bidean SL “all the necessary resources to guarantee the implementation of the medical transport service in the first semester of 2025”.
The three proposals presented by EH Bildu have also been approved. In one of them, the regional Government is urged to “deepen the development of a shock plan aimed at reducing waiting lists in Specialized Care.” The second resolution requests that the Master and Planning Plans be presented within one year that allow planning health policies, infrastructure and equipment, and human resources management. The third resolution of EH Bildu calls for “refounding Primary Care and turning it into the axis or cornerstone of the public health system.”
A proposal by Geroa Bai has also seen the green light for the regional Government to update the Strategic Mental Health Plan of Navarra so that it “deepens the community model of care.”
At the proposal of Contigo-Zurekin, the Parliament of Navarra urges the Government of Navarra to create an interdepartmental commission for the analysis and diagnosis of social factors that affect health.
At the beginning of the debate, the PPN parliamentarian Irene Royo has pointed out that “in recent years Navarra’s health system has been involved in a worrying downward trend, generating uncertainty and discomfort among the population.” “Navarre healthcare has gone into decline in our Community due to poor management and erroneous political decisions. Navarra is the Community that pays the most taxes, but it does not have the best public services in Spain by any means. Navarra does not have the best healthcare but that is losing positions by leaps and bounds in the ranking of the Communities”, he assured, to affirm that “after two terms with progressive governments we have gotten worse”.
The Minister of Health of the Government of Navarra, Fernando Dominguezhas defended that “Navarre’s healthcare, although it may disappoint many, is exceptional”, but has stated that “at the same time I cannot deny that we are living in an extraordinary and very complex moment and that this legislature is key for Navarra’s healthcare.” .
Thus, he acknowledged that the waiting lists are at “inadmissible” numbers, but stressed that “the reality is that, little by little, more slowly than we would all like, things are improving.” In that sense, he has assured that in May “the figures are going to be the best since September because all the measures presented are in place and the system is almost one hundred percent.”
On behalf of UPN, Leticia San Martin has highlighted that “since 2015, the number of Navarrese people who consider that the health system needs fundamental changes or that it must be completely rebuilt has doubled, far from President Chivite’s statements that our health system works very well.” . San Martín has stated that “we do not know if the system works well, because we cannot access it” and has criticized that the Government “is not solving the problems that Navarrese people have with our health system.”
The PSN parliamentarian Maite Esporrin has stated that the waiting lists “concern” his group, but has assured that “the measures that can be taken at this time are being carried out and we have to wait a reasonable time to verify if they are really effective or, On the contrary, look for alternatives, taking into account that the situation is what it is and the added difficulties are many. He has also defended the presentation “as soon as possible of a new regional health law in accordance with the new times with a new model of health management.”
On behalf of EH Bildu, Txomin González has stated that the evolution of the public health system in Navarra “is not being favorable enough to correct chronic problems and deficits that we have been experiencing over the last decade” and has indicated that “a strengthening of the public health system is a priority.” that allows compliance with the law guaranteeing waiting lists and a transformation that offers solutions to maintain and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the public health system.
The parliamentarian of Geroa Bai Isabel Aranburu has indicated that some groups use waiting lists “with the sole intention of undermining the Government”, but has defended that “the department has put all its efforts into lowering the lists with really ambitious goals and to do so it is using all the tools it are at your disposal, implementing appropriate measures in the short, medium and long term. In general terms, Aranburu has highlighted that the department “has been taking important steps” in the priority areas of work, although he has indicated that “there is much left to do.”
From Contigo-Zurekin, Daniel Lopez has stated that “it is a reality that many deficits have been detected in health, not only by the department itself or the political groups, but it has been society that has detected them and that is where it forces us to put our efforts.” López added that “in the face of complicated problems there are usually no magic solutions, but what there is is constant work and application of continuous improvement measures, many of them of a structural nature.”
On Vox’s part, Maite Nosti has proposed addressing attacks on health professionals, since they affect 4.9% of the workforce and the majority are suffered by women. For this reason, Vox has proposed taking the necessary measures to enhance knowledge of the figure of the Health Interlocutor of the Regional Police, “a very little-known figure”, as well as the aggression alarm system through the use of the desktop computer that already It began in 2019. It has also proposed enhancing training and knowledge of the protocols and resources available against possible attacks.