One in every four euros spent in the National Health System is not providing value in terms of health and well-being, according to Salvador Peiró, a researcher at the Health and Biomedical Research Foundation of the Valencian Community (FISABIO). Peiró made these remarks during a speech at the XXXIX Congress of the Spanish Society for Healthcare Quality in Murcia. He highlighted various sources of waste in the healthcare system, including failures in care provision, errors in coordination, administrative complexity, excessive prices, fraud, abuse, and overuse.
Peiró emphasized that waste in the healthcare system goes beyond monetary expenses, as it also includes the cost of therapeutic failure and adverse reactions. For instance, he mentioned that 1.7 million Emergency Department admissions occur each year due to adverse events. He stressed the need for studies to quantify the impact of waste, but suggested that it could account for 5 to 10 percent of total health spending.
Peiró provided examples of overuse in the National Health System, such as unnecessary surgeries for cataracts, knee arthroplasty, and hip arthroplasty. He also mentioned that a significant number of radiological examinations performed in hospitals would be deemed unnecessary.
According to Peiró, while a certain level of waste may be inevitable, it ultimately diverts resources from the care of other patients. Pedro Parra Hidalgo, president of the Scientific Committee of the Congress, stressed the importance of quality as a driving force for transforming the health system and called for comprehensive cycles of evaluation and improvement.