Thousands of people demonstrate in Malaga in defense of public healthcare

Thousands of people - around 3,500 according to initial estimates by the National Police, a figure eventually raised to 3,800 - marched from noon through the capital of Malaga in defense of public healthcare. The White Tide (the main collective formed by medical professionals and their auxiliary services), along with neighborhood associations, unions, opposition parties against the Government of the Board (PSOE, Por Andalucía or Adelante Andalucía), and other social organizations gathered this Sunday at Plaza de la Marina, from where they proceeded along Muelle Heredia, Alameda Principal, and Calle Larios, to end at Plaza de la Constitución, where a manifesto was read around two in the afternoon.

This text, titled 'Andalusian Healthcare One Hundred Percent Public!', was dedicated to denouncing "the neoliberalism that turns health into a business": "We demand the recovery of our public health system, universal and of quality, a guarantor of our health and social justice." Because, as denounced in the document, "our right to health is being eroded in a planned manner; its goal is privatization that advances by leaps and bounds disguised as public-private collaboration or outsourcing of services." They also protested against staff cuts, the reduction of resources, the lengthening of waiting lists, the "destruction" of primary care "knowing that this is directly proportional to a decrease in life expectancy." The crisis of breast cancer screenings also loomed, referred to by the organizers as "the latest mirror" "showing that the maintenance of these policies, or 'necropolitics', represents one of the most brutal assaults we have received."

Diego Romero and María Gracia Navarro, spokespersons for the White Tide, in statements to SUR also summarized the motivations of the protest: "We ask for a change from the neoliberal policies of the Popular Party in healthcare matters and the recovery of a one hundred percent public healthcare system. We need the public system to recover the 20 billion euros lost in these years of cuts since 2010. A popular legislative initiative that we took to the Andalusian Parliament and that the PP voted against is still undeveloped. It was a proposal that stipulated that healthcare agreements should be reserved for cases of extreme necessity, for exceptional situations," they explain. They also demanded the reinforcement of staff and regional hospitals, so that they truly operate as such and not just as mere clinics, because otherwise, they complained, "the roads are filled with sick people in lamentable conditions."

Young Healthcare Workers and Patients

Among the crowd, which chanted slogans like 'Public healthcare!', 'Less brotherhoods and more mammograms!', 'Less bullfighters and more nurses!', or carried signs reading things like 'More healthcare professionals, less trash contracts', young people like Ana, a 27-year-old nurse, demonstrated: "We suffer precarious contracts, from month to month. The updates to the job pool do not value our specialty. Moreover, the nursing MIR now counts as much as five courses." Next to her, Juan Fernández, 24 years old and who took the MIR this year, continued: "I have not yet faced working life, but I see a lack of investment in healthcare that could speed up the waiting lists. Family doctors - which is what he wants to be - cannot spend time treating patients properly. There is a lack of staff and this affects the quality of the system."

In the march, there was also room for personal experiences, like the one Carmen María Serrano shared with SUR: she is a nursing assistant, but what she wanted to tell this media was that her daughter, Leire, twelve years old, was diagnosed with a granuloma in the ear in 2022, and could not be operated on until 2025, by which time it had turned into something more serious and she could no longer be operated on in Antequera, where she was supposed to, but had to come to Malaga capital. "And the process continues. Her ear is still not well," lamented the mother. "There is a clear cut in staff. They promise positions, but they do not fulfill them," continued Serrano. Among the many groups present, also linked to Palestine, they announced a new flotilla that will bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. And also, the one that wants an alternative to the new macro-hospital, of which Sergio Ruiz acted as spokesperson: "There are better ways to solve the healthcare deficit in Malaga; rather than centralizing in such large and poorly located facilities, it would be better to decentralize."

Parties and Unions

In a demonstration that also became a pre-election campaign event before the regional elections on May 17, politicians from Por Andalucía, the PSOE, and Adelante Andalucía were present. On behalf of the first, Ernesto Alba, number one for Malaga in the upcoming elections, accompanied by councilwoman Toni Morillas and national deputy Toni Valero, stated that the Government of Juanma Moreno Bonilla has turned "into a disaster" the public healthcare in Andalusia and that this "responds to a plan": "To dismantle public healthcare in favor of private companies." He attributed to this that "Andalusia is the autonomous community where private insurance has grown the most." This day of protests in Malaga, added Alba, "is going to be a turning point in the campaign": "People are going to amend Moreno Bonilla's policy. People are clearly saying that Moreno Bonilla's plan needs to be reversed. Public healthcare has been a good defended by the workers of this country and now the only plan of Moreno Bonilla is to divert all the funding from public to fatten the pockets of large investment funds. Public healthcare is the only thing that guarantees that people, regardless of what they have in their wallet, can be cared for in a hospital."

On behalf of the PSOE, Ana Villarejo, spokesperson for the party in Malaga, provided data such as that 240,000 people from Malaga are on surgical waiting lists and that this means that the province is in "its greatest healthcare crisis." "People are scared, the people of Malaga are scared that public healthcare is not responding; that they have a cold and it could lead to something much more serious because their family doctor is asked for an appointment on the 1st and has to give it for the 18th; that they need a surgical operation and it takes a year, two, or three and when it is done it is already too late," she pointed out. For this reason, she said, "Malaga is the province where private insurance has grown the most." "From May 17, María Jesús Montero will guarantee one hundred percent public healthcare," she added, referring to a potential victory of the socialist candidate to the Board, in which case the first measures she committed to would relate to healthcare. Meanwhile, Luis Rodrigo, from Adelante Andalucía, argued that public healthcare has to become "pleasant" again for people and for professionals "and that is achieved with resources and reinforced staff."

Unions were also present. Juan Carlos Navas, from the healthcare branch of Comisiones Obreras, stated to SUR: "We are here in defense of public healthcare and against the Government of the Board, which does not hit the mark in managing healthcare. It has put more money, it's true, but what it has done has been to divert it to the private sector. The private sector increasingly has more niche because people, in the face of the deficit of attention in public healthcare, contract private insurance. Among professionals, there is a lot of frustration due to the poor management of hospitals and health centers."

In turn, the general secretary of UGT in Malaga, Antonio González, denounced that public healthcare is in "constant deterioration since the PP governs in Andalusia and also since before." "It is a fundamental pillar of the welfare state and it is being dismantled," he claimed. And he concluded: "In the staff of SAS, there are missing personnel, the days are marathon and they are very saturated."