Cash provided for local health services
NEW minister for health José Miñones has set out a €580 million plan to improve primary healthcare infrastructure around the country so people do not have to travel for treatment.
The investment is to ‘optimise’ health centres and medical equipment.
In the press conference which followed Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Sr Miñones revealed that the cash will be transferred to the regional governments ‘which will have to spend the money’ on the 13,000 health centres and GP surgeries in Spain.
He explained that the priority set out by the government is for the funding to be used to improve local services so that residents do not have to travel for treatment and to prevent long waits at hospitals.
This would see more services available at local health centres, including physiotherapy with the construction of new rooms; X-rays and other types of ‘radiodiagnosis’; and accident and emergency treatment. The investment is particularly designed to improve services in rural areas. It will allow regional health authorities to purchase new equipment to meet these goals, including for outpatient surgery.
AI on the agenda
Deputy prime minister Nadia Calviño spoke at the press conference about artificial intelligence (AI).
She noted that future usage and regulation in the EU of this at-times controversial technology will be addressed during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2023.
The Spanish government has a ‘very clear route to take advantage of all the opportunities that it offers for innovation in the economic and social fields’, but at the same time ‘guaranteeing security, confidence and protection of our rights and democratic values in the digital world’.
Sra Calviño noted that they are investing €600 million from EU recovery funds in their national AI strategy which has been drawn up with universities, local governments and NGOs.
“Thanks to the funding, we have launched important projects which are turning our country into a focal point for attracting international investment and talent,” she said.