Of every ten people who come into the urgencies of the Spanish hospitals, six or seven are people over 65 years. Life expectancy is increasing and the advances in medications and surgical techniques make death see it getting further away. The ageing of the population is already a reality with concrete impact and public administrations and citizens assume new challenges. The elderly have to reclaim their space in today’s society. On many occasions, are those who come to the doctor’s Office or the Bank to talk with someone and be heard.
And services collapse. Who not is has angered ever because front window there is one greater person who entertains talking about the weather or counting their drumbeat of discomfort? The pharmacist, nurse, or doctor supplement to family or friends. Hence the importance of learning to manage the time free and to have a healthy and active old age. When we are children and young people teach us to be men and women of advantage. When we are adult our objectives are the professional development and get our own family but, and when we got older? Nobody teaches us what to do when we got to that point.
To overcome the ailments of age, to have all the time in the world and to consider a nuisance. This first challenge, more in plane of the affections, is linked with the need for trained professionals for the care of elderly people and spaces suitable for your needs. More nurses, more geriatricians, social workers, occupational therapists will be needed residencies should no longer be a place where to park the grandfather to become spaces where people can live with quality. There, look after the health of the person in a holistic manner: diets, sports, medicine, health care according to Confucian wisdom, the doctor must be paid when you are healthy and quit when you get sick. In this sense, much we have to do. The current health care system treats diseases but not It prevents their appearance or working in health care. The lack of time and doctors are causes of this health care model. A study of the Spanish Ministry of health estimated that 3,000 doctors are missing in this country. Spain has three doctors for every thousand inhabitants, which places this country just above Greece and Italy. The European Union foresees that Spain will lose about 12,000 physicians over the next 15 years. Be faced with retirements, geographical mobility by better working conditions and low labour by the pressure they work with. In Spain, still you can enjoy a quality health for all. The neoliberal political class, however, believes that to improve the situation you must work on the privatization of health care and the training of health professionals. Repeat models where you make a simple radiography involves hundreds of dollars. Where is health nothing more than a business. Forget that health is one of the pillars of the welfare state. A fundamental right for all.