Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, broke her silence on Friday about the scandal at Torrejon Hospital, a privately run public center in Madrid. El País newspaper revealed this week that Pablo Gallardo – CEO of Ribera Salud, hospital director – ordered hospital managers to increase waiting lists at the expense of performing fewer interventions and rejecting unprofitable patients or operations to increase economic benefit.
“Any bad practice will be eradicated forcefully, with the necessary information at hand, without thinking, but responsibly,” Ayuso said. He added: “We have wonderful specialists like the Torrejon Hospital, and I ask them with the utmost confidence. Neither they nor any patient will be treated for commercial reasons or any other interest. We will not hesitate, if necessary, to act with such force from the Community of Madrid.”
However, four of the managers who spoke in the Torrejon Hospital Ethics Channel included instructions given by Gallart and others that, they claimed in those writings, were later received, such as prioritizing “non-resident” patients — those who are not by default assigned to the hospital, but who seek treatment there — that are profitable, while relegating care to unprofitable ones.
The Community of Madrid has injected an additional €88 million in the last five years into Ribera Salud to run the hospital, to which a bailout of another €32.7 million was added in July so that the group could meet the debts acquired at Torrejon Hospital, which in 2022 reached €124 million.
A regional spokesman then justified that this exceptional payment was due to the need to rebalance the contract to cover expenses that were not initially contemplated, such as large pharmaceutical expenses. It’s specifically one of the expenses Gallart has asked his managers to review: “Activity that relates to pharmacy issues may not concern us. I don’t know, there are so many switches we can touch.”
Alberto Núñez Viejo, leader of the People’s Party, spoke before the President of Madrid. That was Thursday: “I’m happy that he was sacked,” he confirmed during an event in Don Benito (Badajoz). He added, “This type of demonstrations and behavior contradicts the basic principles that should govern the health of our country.”
On Friday, Issa Serra, regional coordinator of the Podemos party in Madrid, attended a march organized in Madrid to protest the practices of Ribera Salud revealed by this newspaper. He confirmed there that his group had submitted a complaint this morning to the Torrejon Investigative Court against the hospital director and the company. “Other issues include unfair use of public funds, evasion, potential injuries, coercion of workers themselves, and denial of health benefits,” he explained. He added: “Let us hope for justice against this dangerous attack on public health. Citizens are tired of seeing how public health is stolen from us. We must mobilize because Ayuso and his friends from Ribeira and Quiron will not stop.”