THE average wait to see a family doctor or Primary Care health staff is 9.12 days in Spain, according to figures compiled by the Defence of Public Health group(FADSP).
The study says that 25.9% of patients wait 11 days or more, while 38.2% of people suffer delays of three months or more for appointments with a hospital specialist.
There are many regional variations with the average primary care delay standing at 12.4 days in Catalunya, followed by Andalucia on 10.4 days and the Valencian Community with 9.8 days.
In contrast, Asturias comes in with the best figure of the 17 regions with just a 4.8 day wait.
With regard to the longest delays (11 days or more) affecting 25.9% of the population, the regional variations are noticeable.
Catalunya and Andalucia have the highest percentages, with 37.3% and 35.4%, respectively, of people in that situation followed by the Madrid region on 28.7%.
At the other end of the scale, waits exceeding 11 days only affect 6.8% of patients in the Basque Country, followed by 7.7% in Asturias.
In regard to specialist consultations, delays of more than three months affect 53.2% of people in Extremadura and 48.2% of Asturian residents, while in Navarre, just 19.1% of patients suffer from a long wait.
The table below shows the delays region-by-region as compiled by figures from the FADSP, looking at primary care waits in the first two columns, and then specialist delays in the final column.
REGIONS |
Delay in days | (%) Wait 11 days or more | (%) Specialist wait more than 3 months |
| Andalucia | 10.44 | 35.4 | 38.9 |
| Aragon | 7.63 | 19.6 | 40.9 |
| Asturias | 4.88 | 7.7 | 48.2 |
| Balearics | 7.91 | 19.3 | 36.9 |
| Canary Islands | 7.91 | 19.6 | 41.2 |
| Cantabria | 6.29 | 9.1 | 37.7 |
| Castilla y Leon | 5.77 | 8.7 | 45.4 |
| La Mancha | 8.33 | 20.3 | 43.8 |
| Catalunya | 12.4 | 37.3 | 33 |
| Valencia | 9.8 | 30 | 37.3 |
| Extremadura | 6.61 | 14.9 | 53.2 |
| Galicia | 6.69 | 13.7 | 43.3 |
| Madrid | 9.58 | 28.7 | 38.9 |
| Murcia | 6.49 | 13.5 | 35.8 |
| Navarre | 5.62 | 10.4 | 19.1 |
| Basque Country | 5.73 | 6.8 | 27.7 |
| La Rioja | 6.82 | 12.6 | 37.8 |
