Health care service
It’s not deniable that every year thousands of people choose Barcelona and particularly Catalonia not only to rest but also to improve their health. Well-equipped medical institutions, high proficiency of personnel and high quality of treatment — all that is controlled by the Board of health of Catalonia. One of the highest lifetime of population speaks for worthful quality of medical care in Catalonia. On average men live for 78 years, women for 83 years.
Health care is a part of social welfare system, it is financed out of taxes. There are 348 medical institutions in Catalonia — 30 % of them are government-owned, the rest 70 % are represented by medical centres of different form of ownership (private, under the auspices of the church, town council, etc.) There are no differences in rendering of services between private and state medical institutions.
Medicine in Spain is under the supervision of the Ministry of health. Management in public health service and treatment facilities, development of regulatory framework for medical sphere, certification of pharmaceuticals are within the scope of activity of this Ministry. Recently population coverage by state health care service was extended, management in medical branch was reorganized, and nationwide public health system was established.
Catalonia and Basque Provinces are the first regions of Spain where special institutions for estimation of medical technologies and investigations were established. Catalonia is the first region that has changed the finances system for medical institutions. Initially there was no preliminary agreement and all expenses were paid behindhand. Then hospitals began concluding contracts after arrangement of financial flow system.
All hospitals provide the following services:- primary care for children and adult population;
- general health promotion;
- disease prevention;
- surgical treatment;
- ambulatory and institutional care.