Spain Healthcare System
Executive Summary
This report examines the healthcare system in Spain. The report evaluates the standard of healthcare in Spain and challenges that are faced in the system. The healthcare system in Spain ranked among the top due to the availability of hospitals in almost every corner of the country. The number of pharmacists is also above the EU average hence promoting the quality care in the country (Worldbank, 2019). However, more hospitals are still required in the country since they are below the EU average. The mortality rate in the country is declining but there is a fear of future increase due to a large number of the aging population who are prone to chronic diseases. In 2017, the life expectancy at birth is 83.3 years. Spain’s expenditure on health has been declining since 2015 and in 2016 the country recorded 8.7% on health expenditure (Worldbank, 2019). The country is also facing issues in ensuring equity, efficiency, and effectiveness in healthcare. On equity, the country fails to consider those having temporary jobs since the private insurance companies are not attracted to cover them. Lastly, I acknowledge my professor for guiding me in writing this professor. The professor advised on the relevant materials that contain rich information regarding the Spain healthcare system.
Introduction
Spain is referred to as a country that has one of the best-performing healthcare systems in Europe and across the world. Spain has a variety of hospitals and other healthcare centers hence improving the standard of health in the country (Expatica, 2020). Also, most people are entitled to access free treatments since millions of people are social taxpayers. However, Spain’s healthcare system encounters several issues related to equity, effectiveness, and efficiency.
Evaluation of Spain Healthcare System
This report will focus on life expectancy, mortality rate, health promotion, and lifestyle choices to evaluate healthcare standards in Spain. The life expectancy and health status among millions of the Spain population have improved significantly over the last few decades. Besides, the Spain health system faces challenges in the future due to rising obesity among women, the aging population, and increased chronic diseases (Bernal-Delgado et al., 2018). The health standard of Spain can be explained by examining morbidity rates, mortality rates, and life expectancy measures. Also, the country’s health standard can be determined by comparing healthcare outcomes with international benchmarks.
Spain has registered a significant decline in mortality rates over the last years. The country has seen improved life expectancy especially males due to the stabilization of cardiovascular illnesses. The life expectancy at birth in Spain is at a higher rate as compared to various countries in Europe. In 2017, the life expectancy at birth was 83 years (Azzopardi, 2018). However, these are not enough indicators to justify health performance in Spain since there other different variables that were not included in the system.
The mortality rate in Spain is much low as compared to various countries across the globe. However, the rate of mortality rate among males has been higher than that of women. In 2016, an average of 74 males lost their life as compared to 36 women in every 1000 population (World Health Organization, 2020). The study shows that Spain has made an essential improvement over the last five decades by addressing the crucial causes of death. Some of the causes of death addressed by the government include Cerebrovascular disease that has improved by 85%, Ischaemic Heart disease has improved by 80%, and cancer that improved by 45%. However, men have been succumbing to Ischaemic Heart disease as compared to women (TransferWise, 2017). This difference in deaths between the genders is associated with external causes. Spain has ranked as one of the top countries on improving the causes of mortality despite other top-performing countries such as Canada and Australia.
The health public awareness across the country has resulted in a significant increase in people doing exercise daily. Most people including the aging population opt to engage in any kind of exercise to improve their health. The healthcare sector has also been encouraging people to ensure a healthy diet by consuming more percentages of fruits and vegetables. Other countries such as the UK and German have also played a significant role in reducing lifestyle habits that endanger people’s health (National Health System of Spain, 2010). The obesity among women is rising at a high rate of Spain showing the danger faced by Spain’s population. However, the country has ensured that the majority of the country will afford health cost including chronic diseases.
Standards of Healthcare
In this section, the report will focus on healthcare resources, quality of care, and accessibility to healthcare. Spain is one of the top countries in providing quality healthcare to the population. Spain registered a gradual increase in expenditure in healthcare from 1990 until 2010 (National Health System of Spain, 2010). The expenditure seems to be declining gradually from 2015 due to the onset of the economic crisis in the country. However, Spain is ranked below other countries such as Canada and Australia among other nations in terms of health universal expenditure. Overall, Spain is ranked 31st position internationally among the top spending countries in universal healthcare (Worldbank, 2019).
The quality of care in Spain has been performing relatively well internationally. There has been an increase in survival rates for patients suffering from cardiovascular disease which has been above the OECD average (Expatica, 2020). However, the onset of the economic crisis in the country poses a threat to the funding of public programs that have been declined resulting in the decline of providing some healthcare such as dental services. The obstetric trauma has been rising in the country at a higher rate than the OECD average. Overall, Spain is ranked as one of the countries that are offering quality healthcare across Europe as compared to counterpart nations (Gies, 2018).
Spain’s healthcare resources such as human resources in healthcare are ranked above the EU average. In 2013, Spain had 112 pharmacists per 100 000 inhabitants a number which is far above the average of the EU (Bernal-Delgado et al., 2018). However, the country has got issues with the healthcare workers’ distribution with especially in remote areas. The number of healthcare facilities such as hospitals is below the OECD average. The hospital beds were also few as compared to several inhabitants showing that the country must increase the health centres to cater to the population. A few numbers of hospitals force Spain to have a lower rate of hospital discharge as compared to most OECD countries.
Accessibility of care in Spain is relatively fair since facilities are available to many people in just as little as 10 minutes from any location. The majority of the Spain population is entitled to access free healthcare as long as they are social taxpayers. The healthcare cost is catered through the insurance program in the country (Expatica, 2020). The indigenous populations in Spain who live in remote areas have been experiencing suicide, injury, infectious diseases, and a high rate of chronic illness as compared to their counterparts.
Issues and challenges faced by the healthcare system in Spain
This report will examine challenges or issues facing Spain’s healthcare system by analyzing the impact on equity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the system. Some of the crucial issues affecting the Spain Healthcare System include poor health outcomes for an aging population, high mortality rate among people who are between 15-69 years. Another issue includes a lack of attention to patients requiring non-urgent services in health facilities (Worldbank, 2019). Furthermore, the implementation of digital technologies is highly limited as compared to other EU standards.
First, healthcare effectiveness in Spain has some issues. For instance, offering urgent services is one of the challenging issues in the Spain Health System. Spain has been blamed for performing relatively fairly on patients since those require non-urgent services took some time unattended. As a result, different authorities have been come out to address crucial diseases such as chronic diseases, heart attacks, and cancer. Even though the various authorities have started to address such issues, people are still complaining due to poor access to primary care (Worldbank, 2019). Most patients prefer to seek primary care due to the inadequate hospitals and facilities that are below the EU average. Most of the patients who seek primary care are those suffering from the chronic disease since they require social services, rehabilitation among others. The consequences of having difficulties to access primary care include increased pain, anxiety, stress, worry, and long admissions in hospitals.
The community-based care services are also limited in Spain healthcare system since it pays more attention to acute care. Such situations make many people avoid visiting hospitals thus affecting patient outcomes. Putting more focus on acute care also impacts patients requiring complex care in the system (Gies, 2018). This is because such patients are forced to start a negotiation about the private and public programs. Such a process requires patients to share their information but incomplete information regarding this matter results in the poor quality of health care.
The second issue or challenge in Spain includes the efficiency of the healthcare system. The large population of Spain views that money spent on the system of healthcare don’t match the healthcare value received by patients. Spain performs relatively fairly on the healthcare system despite the high cost of services offered in the facilities (Worldbank, 2019). There have been concerns regarding how the country could sustain the quality of healthcare services with the unstable economy in the country. There is fear that if the economy continues to deteriorate, the government will not be able to generate enough revenue to cater to the healthcare cost.
The Medicare coverage of Spain includes some weaknesses that force some people to seek for both private and public coverage. Consequently, the continuity of care and information sharing is highly impacted due to system fragmentation. Limitation on the sharing of information and across health professionals and organizations makes service improvement and innovation inefficient (Azzopardi, 2018). The weakness in the Medicare program affects healthcare organization and financing of the medication. The poor approach in funding makes the health sector focus more on physicians hence forgetting other professionals of health that offer essential services. There have been also fragmentation and inefficient access and sharing of patient information between organizations and programs. Such issues are caused due to the slow collection of data regarding patient while implementing digital technologies.
The last issue or challenge that is facing the healthcare system in Spain is equity. Ensuring equitable access to care to the country that has the majority in the middle-class middle-class middle-class level is a challenge. Some of those earning higher salaries have been able to access extra care as compared to other citizens. The health system of Spain fails to address the gaps that are left by private coverage. Such private insurance ensures people can access comprehensive health cover. The challenge is that such cover only accessed by employed people who earn higher payments in their salaries of which they are extremely few in society. In regard, many private insurance companies are not interested to provide coverage to employees who receive low payment and also those working on temporary jobs. Consequently, patients who suffer from vision, hearing dental disorders tend to have challenges while trying to seek healthcare (Bernal-Delgado et al., 2018). Spain ensures that people majority are covered to access critical care services but fail to cover treatment to those suffering visual, hearing, and dental disorders. Most of the people suffering from such diseases opt to avoid visiting hospitals because they cannot afford to pay the cost of treatment required (Health Information Institute, 2010). Therefore, it is evident that Spain’s healthcare system has failed to ensure equity hence favouring people who belong to the higher economic social status.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Spain’s healthcare system has been performing fairly. The system is trying to enhance the quality of healthcare among the population but the aging population is still vulnerable to chronic illnesses. Spain’s healthcare system requires some improvement so that it can match other countries such as Canada and Australia. For instance, the country should build more hospitals in remote areas so that every person can access care appropriately. The country also requires addressing issues related to equity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the healthcare system. For instance, the efficient use of healthcare funds is still a challenge in the country. This is because more services are required despite the large money being spent on health. For example, the number of hospitals in Spain is below the EU average despite a large amount of money being spent on health (Worldbank,2019). On the issue of effectiveness, more services are still required for people who have non-urgent needs. The doctors have criticized for focusing all the attention on patients who require critical care leaving those require non-urgent treatments.
References
Azzopardi.M(2018) Approval of Universal Healthcare July 27, 2018, Retrieved from https://www.citizensadvice.org.es/approval-of-universal-healthcare-july-27-2018/
Bernal-Delgado, E., García-Armesto, S., Oliva, J., Martínez, F., Repullo, J., Peña-Longobardo, L., … & Hernández-Quevedo, C. (2018). Spain-health system review
Expatica(2020) The healthcare system in Spain is ranked among the best in the world, and this helpful guide provides everything you need to know as an ex-pat Retrieved from https://www.expatica.com/es/healthcare/healthcare-basics/healthcare-in-spain-101467/?utm_source=301&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=2020-04-01#Costs
Gies, T. (2018). The ScienceDirect accessibility journey: A case study. Learned Publishing, 31(1), 69–76. doi: 10.1002/leap.1142
Health Information Institute(2010) Health Information System of the National Health System [Internet Publication]. Madrid: Ministry of Health and Social Policy. Available at: www.msps.es
Kiprop, Joseph. (2018, March 28). Which Countries Border Spain? Retrieved from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-countries-border-spain.html
National Health System of Spain(2010) [Internet monograph]. Madrid: Ministry of Health and Social Policy, Health Information
TransferWise(2017) Healthcare in Spain: A Guide To the Spanish Healthcare System Retrieved from https://transferwise.com/gb/blog/healthcare-system-in-spain
Worldbank(2019)Current health expenditure (% of GDP) Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS
Worldbank(2019)Life Expectancy At Birth, Total (years) – Spain Retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=ES