The Espriu Foundation has welcomed the Private Healthcare Advocacy Pact signed by the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), together with other healthcare institutions, with the aim of recognising private healthcare as being part of the Spanish National Health System (SNS).
The director of the Espriu Foundation, Carlos Zarco, has stated that the Spanish National Health System relies on the private sector to ensure its sustainability and has emphasised that “healthcare cooperatives provide a contribution to this”. In this respect, Zarco has highlighted that “cooperativism is recognised as a complementary factor that provides flexibility and frees up resources within the health system”.
He has further emphasised that, as a player in the social economy, healthcare cooperatives find themselves in a “highly advantageous” position to participate in any public-private collaboration formula. Similarly, the director was keen to stress that “healthcare cooperativism is marked by the absence of non-profit incentives yet, at the same time, yields profits that are reinvested into improving the services, training professionals and delivering high-quality medical practice”.
The pact also proposes to place the patient at the core of the healthcare model, which is something that the entities comprising the Espriu Foundation already take on board in their working methods. “It is the focus of our actions and is an essential part of the decision-making process. There is a direct doctor-patient dialogue that makes this formula unique”, Zarco explained.
The Foundation also subscribes to the demands included in the pact to encourage the training of professionals in the private sector and boost interoperability between public and private health centres. The Espriu Foundation currently serves more than two million people and provides employment to almost 56,700 professionals.