The regional deputy of the PP in Aragon, Fernando Ledesma, has pointed to the Ministry of Health this Monday as the main responsible party for the increase in waiting lists, considering that it "refuses to sit down and negotiate" with the unions that have promoted the strike against the Framework Statute project promoted by the minister Mónica García, a strike of state scope that is also being followed in Aragon.
As he denounced at a press conference, "the stubbornness of the Ministry translates in Aragon into devastating numbers", since as a consequence of these mobilizations more than 4,000 surgical interventions have been canceled, which will take "a long time" to be rescheduled, in addition to 70,000 primary and hospital care appointments postponed, "an unacceptable punishment for the people of Aragon by the Government of Spain" while "the Minister of Health --Ángel Sanz-- and all health professionals are doing their best and making a titanic effort to minimize the impact of the strikes".
Ledesma has stressed that doctors are trying to minimize the consequences of the strikes and has reiterated that the autonomous communities lack the powers to legislate on matters that are exclusive to the central government: "We cannot solve a state conflict", he concluded, calling on the president, Pedro Sánchez, to intervene, "to assume responsibilities and put an end to these damned strikes".
He has warned that the situation of public healthcare is "increasingly extreme and serious" and "directly harms patients in Aragon, who see their surgeries, appointments, and consultations delayed" in health centers and hospitals, as a result of a national strike "against the neglect of the Ministry, which prefers the paralysis of healthcare and the worsening of waiting lists rather than providing a solution".
For the popular parliamentarian, "there is an enormous contrast between how the left leaves public healthcare when it is in government and how it improves when there is a PP government, in this case by Jorge Azcón", calling the central government's attitude "irresponsible", since its refusal to dialogue "is sabotaging the enormous management effort made since 2023".
He recalled that the previous regional president, Javier Lambán, admitted that at the end of his term, public healthcare was "almost in collapse," while the PP "managed to reverse the course it was taking" in this area, reducing the average waiting time for surgery from 148 to 132 days, two weeks less, and reducing the waiting list of more than 180 days by 27 percent, with significant decreases in traumatology --19 percent--, general surgery, 44 percent, and ophthalmology, 72 percent, "due to the management and effort of the professionals."
Likewise, he pointed out that the Ophthalmology department of the Alcañiz Hospital (Teruel) has been recognized with an award for good practices for the notable reduction in its waiting list, and he highlighted the "unstoppable" increase in the healthcare budget, which has made it possible to expand the staff of professionals from 26,500 to 28,200 workers.
He announced that the healthcare budget planned for 2027 will exceed 3,000 million euros, within overall accounts of more than 9,000 million, "one out of every three euros, and we will continue despite the Ministry's boycott."
"We know how to manage, we were straightening the course, and the left-wing parties are determined to break that good course," reproached the PP deputy, recalling that the unions have already warned that from June onwards, strikes will become indefinite.
"The impact of these national strikes is a spanner in the works for the progress of Aragonese public healthcare," added Fernando Ledesma, for whom "it is intolerable that all the effort that the Aragonese people are making is being torpedoed because the Ministry prefers ideological sectarianism over sitting down to negotiate the Framework Statute."