Appointments to see doctor will be sorted in Andalucía, says Junta president

The president of the Andalusian government, Juanma Moreno, set out his plans for the coming year this week. Moreno was speaking as part of two days of debate in parliament in Seville on the state of the region which concluded on Thursday with the approval of the Junta de Andalucía spending plans for 2025.

Among Moreno's key announcements on the first day of the debate on Wednesday, was urgent measures to improve primary care in the health service, steps to improve access to more affordable housing and limiting tourist apartments in residential blocks. He recognised that there was still work to do in many areas.

For primary care, the regional president said that appointment blocking will be reduced, the length of time doctors are in health centres will be increased and a request to see a doctor must be met within a maximum of 72 hours.

"I know that it's desperate sometimes to get an appointment with a family doctor," said the president before saying his government is making changes to make it easier. According to Moreno, a study of the root of the problem has shown that sometimes appointments cannot be found on the internet despite slots still being available if somebody goes to the health centre in person to ask. This happens, he said, because of an amount of appointments that are held back for unforeseen events, which in some cases is up to 50 per cent.

One of the measures that will be taken immediately will be to reduce the number of appointments for these unforeseen situations to a maximum of 7 per cent.

The regional health service will offer all family doctors the possibility of working in the afternoons, an option that last year meant 240,000 more hours of care. In addition, if a health service user cannot get an appointment via the phone app or by telephone, their health centre will have to give them an answer within 72 hours, even if it is with another family doctor in the same district or through a telephone consultation with a doctor who is available in another health district or even in another province.

Moreno announced in his speech that the Junta will limit the use of housing for tourists but he did not specify exactly what the measures would be. He also spoke about a shock plan to build 20,000 new subsidised homes. Both measures will be included in a decree that the Junta de Andalucía will approve in 2025.

Moreno stressed that this measure was not about hatred of tourists, a concept which he rejects. The president explained the main reason for the difficulty of access to housing is the shortage of supply, which he put at 90,000 units, and acknowledged that young people are in a "perfect storm of low wages and expensive flats". To get out of this situation, he said, there needs to be more supply.