139 days. This is the average that an Andalusian must wait to undergo surgery in public health, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health collected as of June of this year, 27 days longer than the average taken for the country as a whole. In the region, at the beginning of summer, there were a total of 192,561 people in need of non-urgent surgery, 55,948 more than the same figure recorded in June 2022, a situation that has been worsening this year where, in addition, 25% of these patients wait more than 6 months to be seen.
On the contrary, the statistics published by the Government based on the data provided by the autonomous communities, speak of an improvement in the attention of external consultations. Although also on this point Andalusia exceeds the national average rate, which is 87 days to make the first appointment with a specialist, health centers receive their patients in an estimated time of 121 days, 40.8% of the 841,731 people who recorded in this record are waiting for this call for a period of more than 60 days.
The Andalusian healthcare scene does not get a good grade. Although, during the last year, from June 2022 to June 2023, the waiting list for a first consultation has been reduced by up to 64,887 people, the waiting time has increased from 107 to 121 days, a funnel that It suffers even more in specialties such as ophthalmology or traumatology and, on the other hand, has a negative impact on operating rooms.
It is these two specialties that bring together the largest number of people at the expense of undergoing surgery. Of the 192,561 people who need a non-urgent operation, 44,268 correspond to traumatology, 40,617 to ophthalmology and 33,124 to general and digestive surgery. Andalusia, with an average time of 139 days to undergo surgery, ranks fourth among the communities with the worst records, only behind the Canary Islands (153 days), Cantabria (142 days) and Extremadura (147 days).
"If we have a health system that works, waiting lists do increase," said Catalina García, Health Minister, this week on Canal Sur. "The more the system produces, there are more referrals, more external consultations and more waiting lists." The objective of the SAS is to balance inputs with outputs. "If we produce more, there are more waiting lists." To this, according to pointed out by the regional Government, is joined by the fact that upon arriving at the San Telmo Palace, headquarters of the Junta de Andalucía, they found 60% of these lists hidden by the previous socialist Executive.
As of June 30, 2023, 819,964 patients had a non-urgent surgical intervention indicated in the entire National Health System. The average waiting time was 112 days and 17.4% of them had been on the waiting list for more than 6 months. The volume of patients with an indication for elective surgery has increased by 9.4% compared to June 2022. The average waiting time is similar to that of the same cut of the previous year (113 days) and the percentage of patients with a longer wait at 6 months it has decreased slightly (2 tenths) compared to June 2022. The specialty with the longest average waiting time continues to be Plastic Surgery with 225 days, followed by Neurosurgery with 192 days and Traumatology, whose patients have been waiting an average of 133 days .
On the other hand, regarding the time to receive a first consultation, as of June 30, 2023, 78.47 out of every 1,000 people were registered on a waiting list for a first consultation with a Specialized Hospital Care physician. This rate is similar to that of June 2022. The average waiting time for these patients is 87 days, 8 points higher than the June 2022 cut-off and without having yet returned to the pre-pandemic figures of June 2019 (81 days ) The specialties with the longest waiting times are: Neurology with 118 days, Dermatology with 99 days and Traumatology with 90 days, according to Ministry data.
