Public and Private Healthcare: 'Complementary, Not Rival'

Representatives from the leading private healthcare groups operating in the province of Alicante gathered at the forum 'Healthcare Sector in Alicante: Present and Future for a Better-Cared Society', organised by TodoAlicante.

Three speakers participated in the second panel of the forum held at the Cultural Sphere of El Corte Inglés in Alicante: María Jesús Cano, Deputy Medical Director of Vithas Hospitals in Alicante; Pepa Soriano, Director of Nursing at Ribera Salud Group; and Rafael Giménez, Corporate Medical Director at IMED Hospitals.

The three highlighted the 'complementarity' of public and private healthcare, dispelling the presumed stigma of competition between the two. A clear example of this collaboration is represented by the Ribera Salud group in the province of Alicante, managing a public health area like Elx-Crevillent, centred around the Vinalopó Hospital.

Representing the group, Pepa Soriano highlighted the benefits of 'greater flexibility' in management that this mixed formula presents compared to entirely public centres; all under the watchful eye of a commissioner to whom accounts are rendered for the regional administration to oversee management. 'Public and private healthcare are a tandem that must act together,' Soriano explained.

'Public and private healthcare are not enemies, we must break that paradigm. What matters is the professional's work, not the environment in which they operate. The main mission is to help the patient,' asserted the Deputy Director of Vithas Hospitals in Alicante. Cano assured that her group 'is part of the Alicante society', where it has achieved a foothold 'by betting on healthcare quality and respect for healthcare professionals'.

In addition to the Muface model, Cano provided another example of public-private collaboration, such as the shock plan that allows public hospitals to refer surgeries, diagnostic tests, or other complementary procedures to private centres to reduce waiting lists, which have become one of the major issues in healthcare in our country.

'With these plans, we manage to offload a lot of work from the public system, and this positively impacts the citizen, who is gradually changing their perception of our work'. Evidence of this, Cano assured, is the increase in private insurance contracts after the pandemic, something also subject to changing trends: 'instead of resorting to an annual policy payment, which might seem the most common, more and more patients are paying for one-off assistance when they need it'.

From IMED, Rafael Giménez highlighted the prominent role technology is assuming in healthcare, advocating for robotic surgery with the cutting-edge Da Vinci robot, as well as nuclear medicine. These initiatives come after analysing the 'shortcomings' the public system may present in some areas, and the willingness to 'supplement them' through private initiative. Artificial Intelligence is also very present in IMED's current and future plans, leveraging its potential for predictive medicine in areas like radiology.

Giménez assured that private hospitals have greater agility than public ones in responding to patient needs, something that, in his view, has been demonstrated after the pandemic with the increase in private policies: 'Previously, they were contracted just in case, now an immediate benefit is appreciated'.

Continuing with the use of technology applied to healthcare, the representative of Ribera Salud referred to successful projects launched by their group, such as a virtual care programme for home hospitalisation unit patients, based on a conversational AI that contacts patients by phone for follow-up.

The speakers also assessed the role of the province of Alicante as a hub for 'health tourism'. Soriano shared her personal experience working in Torrevieja, where a high percentage of the population is of foreign origin. 'Residents from Nordic countries are used to paying for healthcare, so they come here and pay for procedures that cost them less than in their country. In the case of a hip replacement, from 38,000 euros they would pay there, here it costs them 15,000 euros.'