Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
Spain’s public healthcare system is treating a growing number of undocumented migrants and displaced foreigners, despite Spaniards enduring increasingly longer waiting times for appointments and operations.
Figures released by Madrid’s Ministry of Health show that the Spanish capital alone has registered a 44 percent jump in patients without residency papers in the last year, while the Canary Islands have agreed to take in sick and wounded minors from Gaza at the request of the central government, despite its own residents having to wait an average of 122 days for surgery appointments.
According to data published by El Confidencial, the Madrid Health Service (Sermas) provided medical care to 190,000 people in an irregular situation over the past year, compared with 134,000 the year before. The figure represents an increase of 60,000 patients in 12 months, as the region’s total population grew by about half a million.
Regional Health Minister Fátima Matute told reporters that the municipality had issued 140,000 new health cards and delivered 360,000 services to displaced persons. “No one has been denied care or been asked for a credit card,” Matute insisted, noting that Madrid’s hospitals and clinics handled 51 million consultations in a year, seven percent more than in 2024.
Matute complained that the regional system was receiving little help from the central government, accusing Spain’s Ministry of Health of cutting its funding by around €1.5 billion and warned that further reductions were expected as funds were redirected to the Ministry of Defense and NATO commitments.
“They have already cut €40 million from the Carlos III Health Institute,” she said. “I can think of several ministries I would eliminate to provide resources for defense rather than taking them away from health.”
Meanwhile, the Canary Islands government — led in tandem by the Canary Coalition (CC) and the People’s Party (PP) — has announced it will immediately provide medical care to sick and injured children from Gaza, after receiving a request from Madrid. Spokesman Alfonso Cabello said the regional authorities were among the first to volunteer assistance. The transfer will be organized on a Defense Ministry aircraft, with the Ministry of Inclusion responsible for accommodation and social support once the children arrive.
The number of minors and the date of arrival remain unconfirmed, but Cabello said the offer “has already been made immediately by order of the president of the Canary Islands.”
La Gaceta reports the decision to transfer more foreigners to the islands has been met with considerable public criticism amid widespread frustration with the state of the islands’ health services.
The move is despite waiting lists barely decreasing on the Spanish archipelago last year, and the local authorities having, for some time, pleaded with the mainland government for additional support and resources to combat its own illegal immigration crisis.
In a scathing interview with El Mundo back in January, President of the Canary Islands Fernando Clavijo accused Spain’s major political parties — the left-wing Socialists (PSOE) and center-right People’s Party (PP) — of leaving his territory in a “state of abandonment” and urged them to act to address the ongoing migration crisis affecting the islands.
His remarks came after a record number of illegal arrivals onto the islands was recorded last year, totalling over 46,800 and saturating local services.