The Health Minister of the Community of Madrid, Fátima Matute, assures that in the region "waiting lists are not manipulated" and announces internal proceedings following a complaint from a surgeon at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital.
The Health Minister of the Community of Madrid, Fátima Matute, denied on Tuesday that her department manipulates surgical waiting lists and announced the opening of "internal information proceedings to review everything" in the system. She made this statement to the media during the presentation of the ConSalud 2026 Award for Politician of the Year, awarded to regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as reported by theobjective.com.
Matute was responding to accusations from a surgeon at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Alberto Martos, who reported to the management of the centre that two medical chiefs downgraded the severity of patients to improve the balance of their waiting lists. The minister has assured that the doctor has an open disciplinary file dating back to before he made those statements.
It is a lie that the lists are being manipulated, which is a mantra that is being attempted to portray, and which, of course, is based on the statements of a healthcare professional who has an open disciplinary file long before he made these statements in the media," Matute emphasised.
The Health Minister has described the situation as a "vile attack" on the "excellence" of the Madrid healthcare system and has ruled out resignations or dismissals related to this case for now. She also recalled that Order 804/2016, dated August 30, regulates the management instructions for the Patient Waiting List Registry in public hospitals in the region, aiming to ensure "accessibility and equity".
According to information published by El País, documents and emails provided by the surgeon show that 57 patients from the Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology service at Ramón y Cajal were downgraded from priority status (surgery within 90 days) to normal status (up to 180 days). With this change, those in charge gained time for patients to be operated on within the deadline.
Sources familiar with the case have told Europa Press that the situation in the service is complicated due to internal disputes between the complainant and one of the service chiefs, Basilio José de la Torre Escuredo, who were once close friends. These same sources point to "rebellious attitudes" from the surgeon and claim that he has had up to four disciplinary files opened against him, two of which were for vandalism against the service chief's car.
The surgeon, for his part, explained on the TVE programme Malas Lenguas that after reporting the events to the manager and other bodies, a "disciplinary sanctioning file was opened against him in April last year, in which he is still embroiled." According to his account, the measure was a response to his "harassment" of the medical management and the service chief due to an internal conflict. Martos has warned that a change in a patient's priority level can lead to "greater complications or an excessive prolongation of a pathology."
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