Massive protest seeks to halt Madrid’s privatisation of healthcare

Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out this weekend in Madrid to protest against the local government’s management of the beleaguered healthcare system.

Four columns of demonstrators are planning to converge in central Madrid under the slogan “Madrid rises up and demands public health and solutions to primary care”. A similar protest against the Madrid regional government in November drew 200,000 people, according to the central government, and three times that number according to organisers.

“It is heartening to see so many communities and people who feel the need to defend their rights in the face of policies that eliminate and violate them,” said Maru Megina, president of the HOAC Catholic workers’ association, one of dozens of organisations which will be present.

A number of celebrities have also voiced support for the demonstration, which will be accompanied by protests in other parts of the country.

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Film-maker Pedro Almodóvar recalled how healthcare workers were applauded every evening during the early days of the pandemic. “To them I send this applause of support for their demands, of empathy for and understanding of the awful situation they are going through,” he said.

Since the November protest, doctors in the Madrid region have been striking, warning that the local healthcare system is on the verge of collapse, with a shortage of personnel leaving many areas under-serviced. They place much of the blame on the increasing privatisation of the sector by the conservative regional government.

Last month, one group of doctors carried out a lock-in protest in a public building in the Madrid district of Manoteras. Similar protests have also started in other areas of the city.

Manuel Franco, an epidemiologist and spokesman for the Spanish association of public health and healthcare administration, said that Madrid has become “a pilot for neoliberal policies in the privatisation of the healthcare system”. A similarly controversial drive in the region of Valencia failed and has since been reversed, he said.

‘Political strike’

Spain’s healthcare system is devolved, with each of the country’s 17 regions managing funds they receive from the central government. Madrid is not the only region whose healthcare is under pressure. Doctors and nurses in Navarre, have also been striking, while in Valencia and Aragón strike action is pending negotiations.

“We have not been investing enough,” said Mr Franco, who said the austerity that followed the euro-zone crisis was a major culprit. “It’s not only Madrid but also other regions and the focus of this [problem] is primary healthcare.”

Those leading Sunday’s protest point to the fact that Madrid invests less of its total spending in healthcare than any of the country’s other regions. The combative discourse of the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has fuelled the tensions. She has described the recent industrial action in Madrid as “a political strike” encouraged by the left ahead of local elections in May.

“They need instability, revolution and above all to encourage ill-feeling with regard to the Madrid region’s public services, which are excellent,” she said.