It has also attributed the increase to the “summer period”, since surgical activity declines during the second half of July and in August because of staff holidays. “In fact, the average increase in the long-waiting list in August compared with July between 2020 and 2025 was 1,334 patients, a figure similar to that recorded this year,” it stressed.
By province, 8,301 patients in Zaragoza have been waiting for surgery for more than 180 days; the figure is 662 in Teruel and 386 in Huesca. Compared with the previous month, the sharpest increase was in Zaragoza, with 1,067 more patients. Huesca increased by 83 patients, while the figure in Teruel rose by 82 compared with the previous month.
The impact of the nationwide strikes is undermining the positive trend that had been consolidated under the surgical activity revitalization plan launched by the Department of Health, which managed to reduce the long-waiting list by almost 27%, from 7,526 to 5,540 patients during 2025 (a decrease of 1,986 patients).
AN INCREASE DRIVEN BY DOCTORS’ STRIKES
For the regional government, the alternating strike weeks “have affected the organization of activity and generated a cumulative impact that has resulted in the increase in waiting lists observed in the final months of 2026”. In response to this situation, the Government of Aragon has prioritized the most serious cases and those in which delays have the greatest impact on quality of life.
Of all patients who have been waiting for more than 180 days, 3,170 are awaiting procedures that do not require hospital admission, representing nearly 34% of the total long-waiting list. Despite the strikes, more than seven out of 10 procedures this year, 2026, were carried out within 180 days (73.7%).
AN EMERGENCY PLAN TO MINIMIZE THE IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION WORK
In addition, the Department of Health has organized an emergency plan to minimize the impact of work on Aragon’s first public hybrid operating room at Miguel Servet University Hospital (the work, which began at the end of June and is expected to last five months, means that 30 of the hospital’s 36 operating rooms remain operational, with procedures also being carried out in collaboration with the General Defense Hospital and Nuestra Señora de Gracia Hospital), as well as other improvements to surgical units.
The Government of Aragon has criticized the Spanish Government for deciding to approve the draft of the new Framework Statute for healthcare staff promoted by the Health Ministry “without consensus”, despite the opposition expressed for months by professionals and the organizations representing them. It added that all this had occurred “despite the autonomous communities having voiced their opposition at several Interterritorial Health Council meetings”. They have called for its development to be restarted “through a process based on dialogue and consensus”.
