The government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso approved during the last Governing Council, on December 17, the payment of an additional 106,021,845 million euros to three hospitals of the Quirón Group: the General Hospital of Villalba, the Rey Juan Carlos de Móstoles and the Infanta Elena de Valdemoro. These are paid, more than 357 million euros approved by the Consejo, to liquidate the services of public hospitals in the region managed by Quirón, including the Fundación Jiménez Díaz, and that of Torrejón, in the hands of Ribera Salud, which were not announced in the subsequent press release, although it was already known. Next year all agreed agreements will be published, because Cadena SER has improved.
Payments to these three hospitals which operate in the form of a concession under the command of Quirón ―the largest health concession in the region― are justified by the concept of “restoring the economic balance of the public service management concession contract”. The Health Council explains to this periodical through a spokesperson that this “rebalancing of the assistance offer” corresponds to 2025. The health center that will receive the largest amount for this reason will be the Valdemoro Hospital, with 44.5 million euros, to which an additional 32.8 million will be added to reimburse the exercise in 2024, for a total that exceeds 77 million euros.
In the case of the Villalba Hospital, Quirón will receive an additional 21.4 million euros, in addition to the 37.9 million paid last year for its activity, which represents more than 59 million euros. And the Rey Juan Carlos Hospital in Móstoles will take 40.1 million for this “economic rebalancing”, while it will allow us to receive an additional 84.8 million throughout 2024.
Among all the payments made by the Autonomous Government to the five private public hospitals, which total approximately 463 million euros, the largest goes to the Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Quirón’s large company. For the notion of “expenses linked to liquidation corresponding to health activity, with pharmaceutical exemption, within the framework of the Libre Elección corresponding to the 2024 financial year”, at this hospital in Madrid which operates according to a special model of public-private collaboration and different from the other four concerted centers, they will receive 176.6 million euros. Among the government’s claims are also 2.3 million euros for “the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis activity”. ―a procedure linked to in vitro fertilization― and an additional 36.9 million for the tacit renewal of the bill in order to “meet the assistance needs of patients who benefit from it”. health system, for the period from January 1 to January 31, 2026.” In total, Jiménez Díaz alone will receive 216 million euros from the Community of Madrid.
In July this year, the Community paid almost 33 million euros to the Torrejón de Ardoz Hospital for a similar concept of economic rebalancing. In this case, the center managed by Ribera Salud which was publicized because of the audios of its CEO where he asked to increase profits at the expense of the quality of patient care, the “rescue” took place in the midst of the economic problems that the company was facing and which had to open a restructuring plan of the company that has practically dragged on since its foundation. “It was necessary to rebalance the contract for expenses not foreseen at the beginning, such as the sharp increase in pharmaceutical expenses for innovative and high-impact drugs that were not planned at the beginning, as well as other nuclear medicine or glucose devices (for diabetic patients),” explained a spokesperson for the Autonomous Executive when it was agreed that this payment would be paid for half of the year.
As this newspaper reports, the Ayuso government has paid 2.354 million more than expected to Quirón (2.208) and Ribera Salud (146) since 2019, when the president took office, until 2024. The total bill over the years has been 6.663 million, between the five private public hospitals that exist in the region, which in the meantime earn more than 1.300 million additional euros per year. However, public hospitals are underfunded, with a staffing crisis and a lack of material resources.
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