Toledo (EFE).- The average waiting time for a surgical intervention in public health in Castilla-La Mancha has been 106 days in 2022, 15 percent less than in the previous year and “the lowest in recent eleven years”.
The managing director of the Castilla-La Mancha Health Service (Sescam), Regina Leal, has valued in a press conference this Tuesday the growth in 2022 of all the data, parameters and figures in the different healthcare areas, in a very notorious in some, the case of surgical interventions, which have meant a “greater and better quality of life” for citizens.
In this section, the number of patients waiting for an operation as of December 31, 2022 has been 33,275, 1,850 less than in 2014, and the number of surgical interventions has increased by 12,124, with a total of 116,366, of which that 96,682 were programmed, which represents an increase of 15%.
More than 3 million appointments in External Consultations
Within the Outpatient Consultation area, Leal has detailed that there were 3,365,848 in Hospital Care, 6% more than in 2022, and of these 1,100,091 were the first, almost 10% more, and 47,159 have been registered on the list Standby.
In the Diagnostic area, Leal has reported that as of December 31, 2022 there were 6,503 patients on the waiting list, almost 54% less compared to 2014 and 15% less than in 2021, he has compared, which he has attributed to the The regional government is firmly committed to renewing the “obsolete” technology with an investment of more than 800 million euros.
In fact, it has cited the renovation of 39 CT, 58 surgical arches, 17 magnetic resonance imaging, 34 digital radiology rooms, seven gamma cameras, nine catheterization rooms, five angiographers, one vascular angiographer, one mixed vascular/hemodynamic room, five PET- TC, seven linear accelerators, an electrophysiology room, 14 remote controls and eight mammographers, among others.
In this context, compared to 2021, he has alluded to the growth of some 30,000 colonoscopies, 21,000 MRIs, 25,000 CT, 1,100 hemodynamics, 1,000 therapeutic or 12,000 radiotherapy sessions, helped in this case by having the means of the University Hospital of Toledo.
Primary Care, “priority axis” of the Government’s action
The managing director of Sescam has placed Primary Care as a “priority axis” in the regional government’s health policy, in such a way that 28.5 of the total budget has been allocated to Health.
It has also highlighted the 27.4 million consultations, with a clear increase in all sections, with 35,000 more radiological tests (445,900 total), 12,000 ultrasounds (102,739), 4,600 head CTs, 5,400 magnetic resonances (14,265) or 2,100 colonoscopies ( 13.049).
Precisely, in the case of colonoscopies, Leal has welcomed the adherence to the program against colon cancer, which has exceeded 50%, which “is a source of pride”, with the detection of some 20,000 precancerous or cancerous lesions and the consequent “quality of life” for these patients.
And, he added, in the key role of Primary Care, that since 2015 8% more professionals have been hired, to recognize that “promptly” there have been delays in the service to citizens, which he has attributed to casualties or vacations and that “they do not have substitutes to cover these incidents as was the case ten years ago.”
He has referred, in the conclusion of the balance, to the more than 214,000 assistances provided by the 112 Emergency and Emergency Service, and of these he has highlighted the 2,486 helicopter flights, both day and night, in this case “the only region next to the Canary Islands that operates at night,” he specified.
To questions from the media about the Professional Career, Leal stressed that “first there is the consolidation of the professionals we hired due to covid-19, some 2,000 doctors, and then the next step will be to start with the schedule of the Career”.
Finally, it has advanced that Sescam is working to replace the current teleconsultation with the video consultation that happens, it has concluded, “by expanding the security criteria” for its actual implementation.