The Region of Murcia is the second community that plans to allocate the least money per inhabitant to the maintenance of public health in 2024, according to a report from the Federation of Associations in Defense of Public Health (FADSP), which has analyzed the accounts presented by the different autonomous governments for next year. Specifically, and according to these calculations, in the Region 1,555.61 euros per capita have been allocated for the health system in 2024, 20.97 euros more than in 2023 and 221.35 more than in 2010. Only the Community of Madrid presents a budget per capita lower than that of Murcia (1468.38 euros).
The president of the ADSP in the Region of Murcia, Mario Soler, regrets that the regional government has allocated 351 euros less per inhabitant than the Spanish average for health. It is still further away from the leading communities, such as Asturias (2,311.16 euros per capita) or the Basque Country (2,311.16).
But this 'ranking', in which the Region of Murcia appears at the bottom, contrasts with the real spending data from previous years. In 2021, the last year with figures already validated by the Ministry of Health, the Region was one of the communities that allocated the most money per inhabitant to health. Specifically, this expenditure rose to 1,909 euros per capita, a figure much higher than the national average of 1,716 euros per inhabitant. Only the Basque Country (2,073 euros per inhabitant), Asturias (1,965) and Navarra (1,941) were placed ahead of Murcia.
This paradox between one and the other 'ranking' reveals the extent to which the enormous gap reaches between budget and expenditure in the Murcian Health Service (SMS), the result of a chronic underfunding that each year increases an unparalleled deficit in the systems. health in Spain. The Association in Defense of Public Health itself already warned of this in a recent report in which it demanded a health budget of at least 2.9 billion euros in the Region of Murcia. Finally, the public accounts include 2,503 million for the SMS, the Ministry of Health and the Foundation for Health Training and Research (FFIS).
The Court of Auditors has been warning about this situation for years. This organization estimated the accumulated deficit at the end of 2020 in the SMS at 2,375 million euros. That year, the gap between income and expenses amounted to 426 million. In 2021, the deviation increased. Specifically, 31.8% more was spent than budgeted, compared to a gap of 15% in the communities as a whole, according to calculations by UMU economist Fernando Ignacio Sánchez.
In the absence of data from the Ministry, the PSOE estimates the gap between income and expenses in 2022 in the Murcian Health Service at 800 million. The 2024 budgets lead to more deficits, as denounced by the opposition: seven out of every ten euros are destined to pay payrolls, while the rest of the items are not close to what the real expenditure will be. An example is pharmacy. In 2022, 540 million were allocated for this item, but expenditure exceeded 1,001 million, “with a deviation of 85%,” according to the ADSP.
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