“We have to defend free and universal public healthcare in our country. Because the worst enemy of the national health system are not viruses and diseases, but the cuts that were inflicted with the neoliberal response to the financial crisis”, warned Pedro Sánchez. Public housing, public education and, now, public health. The President of the Government has reactivated his electoral campaign of 28-M this Saturday in Valencia with the announcement that the Council of Ministers will approve next Tuesday “the largest investment in primary care ever made”, with up to 580 million euros.

Sánchez recalled that Mariano Rajoy imposed a cut of 10,000 million in social spending on all communities in 2012: 3,000 million in public education and another 7,000 million in public health. The pillar that was most weakened by this “neoliberal response”, along with public health, was primary care, as he has highlighted. The injection of 580 million euros announced today by the head of the Executive will serve “to reinforce, strengthen and modernize” the 13,000 primary care centers throughout Spain.

On May 28, in the elections, Sánchez has assured that citizens will be able to choose “between public health and cuts and privatization, between the right to health or the health business.” “Voting for the PSOE is voting for public health!” He warned to loud applause from the 6,000 supporters who, according to the organization, have gathered this Saturday at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.

Next Tuesday, the Council of Ministers will thus approve a final game of 580 million euros to improve primary care infrastructures and equipment.

The autonomous communities, which have competence in the matter, must allocate these 580 million euros to modernize and improve the more than 13,000 centers that already exist in Spain, and finance with this item new physiotherapy, radiodiagnostic and emergency rooms to avoid waiting , saturation or unnecessary displacements.

This will be, according to the Executive, the largest investment that a Government has made in history to improve primary care. Public health is a regional responsibility, but Sánchez assures that it is “the priority of the Government of Spain.”

Today in Valencia, together with the regional president Ximo Puig and the socialist candidate for this disputed mayor’s office, Sandra Gómez, and tomorrow at the rally that he plans to hold in Valladolid, together with the mayor and candidate for re-election, Óscar Puente, Sánchez sets the goal in highlighting the reinforcement of public health that the Executive is undertaking. The PSOE leader today contrasted his commitment to public health with the privatizations and cuts that he has attributed to the PP.

The Government expresses its total commitment to public health, one of the main concerns of citizens, while the PSOE denounces the dismantling and privatization of the system that it attributes to the autonomous communities governed by the Popular Party and the cuts that it attributes to the previous mandates of Mariano Rajoy. And, singularly to the executive of the Community of Madrid directed by Isabel Díaz Ayuso. “The community with the highest per capita income and with the lowest health spending per inhabitant in all of Spain,” she denounced. “We are rebuilding the National Health System”, they highlight in the Executive. And they list their commitments implemented, such as the restoration of the universality of the public health system, the elimination of the pharmaceutical co-payment for more than 6 million vulnerable people, the expansion of the common portfolio of benefits, with tests such as cancer screening or medicines for the treatment of rare diseases.

In addition, the Government claims to have launched the largest expansion of health personnel in history, hiring 90,000 new professionals, compared to the 3,000 cut by the PP. Also the largest call for MIR vacancies in history, with more than 11,000 vacancies, 40% more than when Sánchez arrived at Moncloa. In terms of investment, they highlight the activation of the INVEAT plan with 800 million euros to acquire high-tech equipment, the cutting-edge health PERTE with 1,500 million euros, the first digital health strategy with more than 700 million euros up to the year 2026, and the first mental health plan in our country, endowed with more than 100 million euros, with the launch of the suicidal behavior hotline, telephone 024.