Matesanz outlines at UCAM the “realities and challenges of the post-COVID Spanish health care system”
The founder of the National Transplant Organisation gave the master class to the students of the 10th edition of the Master’s Degree in Health Services Management and Planning, directed by Dr Mariano Guerrero
‘Realities and challenges of the post-COVID Spanish health care system’ is the title of the master class that Rafael Matesanz, founder of the NTO and honorary doctor from UCAM Universidad Católica de Murcia, gave to the students of the Master’s Degree in Health Services Management and Planning (accredited by ANECA) of this university. He stressed the need to take advantage of the situation generated by the pandemic to rebuild the national health care system.
Dr Matesanz explained to the students the need to reinforce and modernise the Spanish health care system, to win back the confidence of healthcare professionals by putting an end to temporary work and to place primary health care at the centre of the system, providing it with more resources and strengthening its cooperation with the specialities. He also made other proposals, such as digitalising the entire system, which would allow for better remote monitoring of patients, creating the speciality of Emergencies and Infectious Diseases, reconsidering the Resident Medical Intern exam (MIR) model, which is now almost forty years old, guaranteeing continuous staff training and making more effective use of the potential of nursing professionals.
These ideas form part of the ‘Proposals for the reconstruction of the National Health Care System’ presented by Matesanz himself before the Commission for Social and Economic Reconstruction created by the Spanish Parliament. In conclusion, he warned that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus would be with us for a long time and that we should anticipate the changes that await us.
A staunch defender of Izpisúa’s research
Rafael Matesanz was the director of the NTO for 28 years, positioning Spain as the leading country in organ donation. Despite this great success, he has always emphasised the shortage of organs for transplants, being a staunch defender of the research line of the extraordinary professor of Developmental Biology at UCAM and professor at the Salk Institute, Juan Carlos Izpisúa, which aims to generate human organs in pigs to be transplanted.