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Spain plans big boost in digital health spending

Spain is planning a big boost to spending on healthcare and digital health in next year’s budget. Public procurement also looks set to become more open and competitive.

With Spain still recovering from the effects of the Coronavirus, and with subsequent waves of infection preoccupying policy makers and the healthcare establishment, the Government plans big increases in spending across the board on healthcare in the 2021 state budget.

The country’s Ministry of Finance has published a note in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) that lays out the Government’s plans to increase spending and expand healthcare and digital health.

These include strengthening “capacity to respond to emergencies” and “investments in science, research and innovation”.

Digital healthcare is seen as critical to improving Spain’s response to future waves of the pandemic. The budget will make funds available for “improving the digitisation of health services”. The digital healthcare infrastructure will gain a new purpose: “enhancing the efficiency and resistance of the Public Administration to provide rapid responses.”

Perhaps anticipating large scale tax increases to pay for a major boost in healthcare funding, the Ministry of Finance is promising that public expenditure plans will become more transparent, and efforts will be made to enlist public understanding and support for each ministry’s budget.

This aim of greater public support for Government spending will be complemented by greater analysis of public spending effectiveness. The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) will evaluate Government spending plans for “effectiveness and efficiency”.

If the Government begins to pay heed to AIReF recommendations, then Spain’s approach to public procurement, including of healthcare technology, could become more open to competition. The AIReF has been an advocate for open, competitive public procurement at a nationwide level, and learning from the experience of Spain’s devolved administrations. Before Coronavirus, Spain’s central Government did not tend to heed AIReF’s advice.

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