According to the 2024 Global Health Barometer, 83% rate the care received at the primary care level positively and 43% consulted a specialist in the last year.
Almost 80% of the population aged 18 and over use primary care services and 83.1% of these people rate the care they receive positively, according to the global Health Barometer 2024. At the same time, 43.4% had visited a specialist doctor in the last year and 81.8% rated the care received positively. Ten per cent report at least one admission to a public hospital in the last year and 87.9 per cent of patients rate the way they were treated positively.
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Almost 80% of the population used primary care services in 2024
Improvements can be seen with regard to digital health and the use of different services via the Internet, as 40.1% of those interviewed reported having accessed their electronic medical records online at some point, 44.4% know that doctors can consult their clinical information in an autonomous community other than their own and 60% know that they can pick up medicines at any pharmacy in the country with an electronic prescription.
The level of satisfaction with the Spanish public health system (whether or not it has been used) remains stable in 2024, with a score of 6.28 out of 10, and citizens continue to show a clear preference for public centres in the four healthcare areas analysed. This assessment consolidates the trend observed in 2023, and confirms the stabilisation of public opinion on the National Health System after the drop recorded in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 (6.74).
The 2024 Health Barometer reveals that the emergency services, both 061 and 112, together with admissions and care in public hospitals, are the best rated by the population, with scores of 7.43 and 7.16 points out of 10, respectively.
As for primary care, the rating for consultations with family doctors in health centres was 6.29 points, while primary care emergency services scored 6.34 points.
In general, 55% of the population has a positive opinion of the functioning of the Spanish health system, compared to 15.6% who consider that it needs profound changes. With regard to the situation of waiting lists, 47.4% believe that the situation has remained the same, 35.6% that it has improved and 8.3% that the situation has improved.
Evaluation by users
80% of Spanish adults used primary care services last year, and the vast majority (83.1%) rated the care received positively, highlighting the confidence and security conveyed by the professionals. In terms of waiting time, 22.3% of patients were seen within the day or the day after making the appointment, while the average delay for the rest was 8.7 days.
In the last year, 43.4% of the people surveyed went to see a specialist doctor and 81.8% rated the care they received positively, due to the confidence and security conveyed by the doctors and the information received about their health problem. Of these, 38.3% had been referred by their primary care doctor and 38% had to wait 3 months or more to be seen by the specialist.
10% reported at least one admission to a public hospital in the last year. 87.9% of patients rate the care received positively. The most highly rated aspects are the care provided by medical and nursing professionals.
The emergency services of the National Health System as a whole are rated positively by 75.2% of the people who used them in the last year. Primary care emergency services attended 39.2% of the demand in this period and hospital emergency services 54%.
According to data from the 2024 Health Barometer, 18.2% of people needed to consult for a mental health problem, half of whom were treated in public health care, with 80.4% giving a positive assessment, and the other half in private health care.