More than a month after the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta on July 30 and 31, the autonomous city continues to deal with the consequences of a crisis that has placed heavy pressure on its public services and has already extended beyond the local sphere. On Wednesday, September 2, coinciding with Ceuta Day, rallies were held in hundreds of municipalities across Spain to show their support.
The situation has placed extraordinary pressure on a healthcare system that was already facing difficulties, including a lack of professionals, problems covering certain specialties, waiting lists and the need to travel to mainland Spain to access some healthcare services.
Unlike in the autonomous communities, public healthcare in Ceuta is managed directly by the National Institute of Health Management (Ingesa), an agency under the Ministry of Health.
Against this backdrop, Anpass sought to gauge Spaniards’ perception of the crisis, the resources available and the actions taken by the authorities responsible. Ninety-three percent believe that Health Minister Mónica García should assume political responsibility and resign over her handling of the situation.
The results reflect a particularly critical assessment of the response provided. Eighty percent rate Ingesa’s performance as ‘bad or very bad’, with 60% describing it as “very bad”. At the same time, 99% believe that Ceuta had insufficient healthcare resources, both human and material, to deal with an emergency of this scale, while 87% describe them as “clearly insufficient”.
“The results convey a very clear message: there is an almost unanimous perception that Ceuta’s healthcare system did not have the resources needed to respond to an exceptional situation of this magnitude. And the most concerning aspect is that citizens do not identify merely a one-off problem arising from this crisis, but rather shortcomings that should have been addressed earlier,” said Anpass president Mercedes López.
SOLUTIONS
Indeed, one of the main messages emerging from the survey is that the need to strengthen healthcare in Ceuta is not seen solely as a consequence of the migrant emergency.
Ninety-two percent believe that the Spanish government should have strengthened Ceuta’s healthcare resources beforehand, and within this group, 72% believe it should have done so regardless of whether a migrant crisis occurred.
Looking to the future, the demand is not limited to having reinforcements available during exceptional situations: 93% are calling for a significant and permanent increase in the healthcare resources allocated to Ceuta.
The extraordinary pressure would also have affected healthcare for the population as a whole. Ninety-nine percent believe that the sudden mass arrival of people had a serious or considerable impact on routine healthcare, while 93% directly describe that impact as “serious”.
Regarding responsibility for providing these resources, 86% identify the Spanish government, through the Ministry of Health, as primarily responsible for ensuring that Ceuta has sufficient means to deal with an emergency of this kind.
This perception also explains the virtually unanimous support for the demands put forward by the autonomous city: 98% consider the requests for more resources and support made by the Ceuta government to the Spanish government to be fully justified and believe they should be addressed urgently.
