Insalud blames strike for tarnishing 1995:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Carmen Martinez Aguayo, director of the Spanish health agency Insalud, has called 1995 a "magnificent year", overshadowed only by the doctors' strike in the summer. The director highlights the increase in the number of procedures carried out and the free-choice-of-doctor programme. The "blue list" of patients who had their operations postponed during the strike has been cleared, she claims, and bemoans the fact that if it were not for the strike, the actual waiting list may have been reduced to zero. Some 44,000 people had waited more than six months for surgery at the end of December, which was about the same as for 1994. Insalud also blames the doctors' strike for increasing the average length of hospital stays. It rose 0.6% in 1995 to 9.12 days. In 1994, the average stay was 8.51 days, falling from 8.93 in 1993, says a report in Diario Medico.