The Government allocates to Balears 15 million euros for Primary Care and more than one million euros for Mental Health

The Council of Ministers approved a total investment in Primary Care of 580 million euros for distribution between the CCAA, Ceuta and Melilla, aimed at improving infrastructures and equipment of health centers throughout the country.

The Council of Ministers today approved, on the proposal of the Ministry of Health, the allocation of 15 million euros to the Balearic Islands for Primary Care, aimed at improving infrastructures and equipment.

In total, 580 million euros will be distributed to the autonomous communities and to Ceuta and Melilla - the latter two through the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA) - to modernize and improve the more than 13,000 health centers and clinics that already exist in Spain and finance with this item new physiotherapy, radiodiagnostic and emergency rooms that will avoid waits, saturation or unnecessary displacement.

The Minister of Health, José Miñones, has reported that the Primary Care Infrastructure Improvement Plan (MINAP) contributes to ensuring equality among all people, as a decisive tool to bring essential services closer to citizens throughout the territory and, especially, in those areas most affected by depopulation.

With the approved investment to modernize Primary Care throughout the country, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services are brought closer to the population. In this way, the people who need these attentions will be able to avoid unnecessary displacements and will see their access improved, guaranteeing the equity of citizenship and promoting territorial cohesion.

The MINAP Plan is part of the Primary and Community Care Action Plan 2022-2023, approved by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS). Together with the Digital Transformation Plan for Primary Care and the Oral Dental Plan, the line approved on Tuesday raises the investment of the Government to 1,092 million euros to strengthen Primary Care, through transfers made to the autonomous communities between 2022 and 2023.

Mental health reinforcement

The Council of Ministers also approved on Tuesday to allocate more than one million euros to the Balearic Islands to strengthen mental health care. In total, a transfer of 38.5 million euros has been approved to the autonomous communities and cities - these through INGESA.

José Miñones recalled that the Ministry of Health has launched the Mental Health Plan, endowed with 100 million euros. In this context, the line of attention to suicidal behavior has been activated, telephone 024, which in its first year of life has handled almost 119,000 calls and has identified and intervened in 8,563 cases of high or ongoing suicide risk.

In relation to mental health, in the last call for Specialized Health Training, 20 MIR Medical Specialist Positions in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have been awarded for the first time. And the Mental Health Strategy has been updated, with the agreement of the Interterritorial Council, after more than 12 years without renewal.

The investment in Primary Care and mental health approved on Tuesday complements the hospital modernization of the High Technology Equipment Investment Plan (INVEAT), which has allocated almost 800 million euros of European funds to buy 851 high-technology equipment for public hospitals throughout Spain: equipment to improve diagnosis (such as TACs or magnetic resonance imaging) and also treatments (such as linear accelerators for the treatment of cancer or hemodynamic rooms).