- Popular platforms for public health will be mobilised in Bilbao, Donostia and Vitoria. They report that directing people to private clinics to reduce waiting lists is a “round business” for governments, because they are driving privatization.
The OPA coordinator for public health has recalled that citizen mobilizations are necessary to stop the “demolition” of the public health system. It has therefore called for a demonstration on 11 November in Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián and Vitoria-Gasteiz at the meeting of popular platforms held on 23 September in Araia.
“We want to articulate the citizen’s response against waiting list reduction plans to refer patients to private clinics,” they explain. In Araia, this agreement between the Basque Government and the Government of Navarra is discussed and they oppose “unanimously”. They have criticized that the public has demanded quality and public health, but the government’s response has been “to continue to weaken and destroy it so that private health becomes more cumbersome and allocate public money to a few”.
They have called for profound changes in Osakidetza and Osakidetza to “strengthen, expand and improve” the public health system. They denounce that they currently have a “round business”: “They make up the waiting lists figures for private clinics, but still do not solve the structural problems”. According to the members of the OPA platform, it is the ones that have generated the problem that are “selling” the solution.
Strong citizen response
They recall that in the face of this privatization, the citizens have realised the “manipulation strategy” and have therefore called on them to give a strong response on 11 November. They will require that health be public, transparent, comprehensive, participatory and responsive to the needs of citizens. Mobilisations shall require the return of any restriction.