Emergency technician José Villa appeared this Wednesday before the Commission on Citizen Testimonials and Human Rights of the Cortes de Aragón to explain the situation of urgent medical transport, where he denounced the "deterioration" of the means with which they work, which "was made evident when in April those responsible for the maintenance of the vehicles left on record with the works committee the state in which the fleet of all Aragón is found".
In his intervention, Villa underscored "the situation of imminent risk at a physical and psychological level" suffered by those who provide this service.
"Since the last company took over the service we have had incidents of all kinds in 2023, in 2024, in 2025 and in 2026, we do not have an aggression protocol, nor the support of security forces in dangerous services and we lack security and habitability conditions in the bases," he detailed, noting that, despite this, "the company’s response is always that it will study it, while the situation only gets worse".
He also recalled that "last year I appeared before this commission and spoke about the problems of the vehicle fleet due to its maintenance, but now the situation has worsened notably and some tragedy will happen that we will all then have to regret". He admitted, moreover, not knowing "how many total incidents there may be in the Community", although he lamented that "it seems that the company is not there to spend money neither on maintenance nor on the employees’ salaries".
In the final stretch of his intervention, he criticized the fact that the workers of this service "have had the same salaries since 2018" and that "vehicles much older than this tender are being used". In his view, "it seems that we have a super advanced service and it is the opposite, but it is in your hands to establish improvements, enforce them and ensure that there are minimum security standards in public companies, because otherwise we will all pay for it".
Political debate on the medical transport model
In the turn of the groups, Popular Party deputy Susana Gaspar pointed out that "there are periodic meetings between the company and the management of the 061 in which all breaches are analyzed and sanctions are imposed", and she advanced that "the Department of Health is not going to continue with the same specifications and the same contract".
The socialist parliamentarian Carmen Soler has emphasized that her group "has always defended a public urgent health transport model, with decent conditions and that addresses territorial dispersion" and has insisted that "the Government of Aragón has to be vigilant in order to improve the future terms of reference".
On behalf of Vox, the deputy Marta Fernández has highlighted "the important work carried out by emergency technicians because they provide an essential service for the people of Aragón," recalling that from her party "we have always defended that the economic improvements the service has experienced must be passed on obligatorily to the workers".
On the part of CHA, Mascún Ariste has stated that "those who work in urgent health transport go out each day to attend to people assuming enormous responsibility, and the only thing we can do is ensure that you have decent conditions" and has reiterated that "we defend a healthcare system that reaches the entire territory of Aragón".
From Aragón-Teruel Existe, Pilar Buj has warned that "without efficient health transport that reaches the entire territory, the reality of public healthcare for all is cut short", emphasizing that "this service will only begin to function when Salud manages it directly, that is, when it is internalized".