The plan envisages the execution of 367,100 medical acts to be carried out in the hospitals of the Health Service in the form of extra days in the afternoon.

This year, the Health Service will invest 18,121,037 euros in a shock plan to tackle waiting lists in hospital care, with the intention of drastically reducing the delays for surgery, a consultation with a specialist doctor or a diagnostic test generated as a result of the paralysis of scheduled hospital activity due to COVID-19.

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The plan envisages increasing the number of surgical operations, outpatient consultations and diagnostic tests in the afternoon, in order to reduce waiting times to pre-pandemic levels.

It should be remembered that since March 2020, the Health Service hospitals created a double circuit – respiratory and non-respiratory – to isolate patients with COVID-19 symptoms and thus avoid contagion; in addition, during the peaks of the six pandemic waves, hospital areas were restructured to reserve beds for patients with COVID-19 both in the ICU and in hospital wards and, therefore, surgical activity was limited to urgent and oncological interventions.

This was explained by the director general of the Health Service, Juli Fuster, accompanied by the deputy director of Hospital Care, Francesc Albertí. Juli Fuster recalled that during the two years of the pandemic the health centres were unable to carry out 100% of their activity, either because the waves of COVID-19 forced them to maintain areas dedicated to the disease, or because the double circuits established slowed down care.

With the aim of returning to the waiting list data of January 2020, this year the Health Service will implement a special plan to incentivise the extraordinary activity of Health Service professionals in the afternoon.

Thus, €18,121,037 will be allocated to carry out a total of 367,100 medical procedures, whether surgical interventions, specialist consultations or diagnostic tests. In total, 9,202 surgical interventions, 155,859 outpatient consultations and 202,039 diagnostic tests are planned.