Healthcare looms over Spanish vote as cuts hit hospitals

By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) – Raul Robledo’s 82-year-old mother died on a stretcher in a corridor of the emergency unit of La Paz hospital in Madrid in February, after waiting nearly 48 hours for a room. The emergency wards of Spain’s hospitals have borne much of the brunt of deep cuts that Spain has inflicted to its healthcare system over the past five years while the country was swept up in the region’s debt crisis. Now, even as Spain’s economy is recovering, the state of the nation’s leaner healthcare system is shaping up as a key issue in regional and national elections later this year. Such is the concern that some hospital workers are also filing formal complaints in Spanish courts, asking judges to force hospitals to increase resources.
Go to Source