Scandal at Hospital de Torrejón: Ribera Salud CEO Orders Patient Rejection to Boost Profits
Leaked audio exposes Ribera Salud CEO ordering patient rejection at Hospital de Torrejón to boost profits, prompting investigations and political backlash.
- • Leaked audio reveals CEO Pablo Gallart instructed increasing waiting times and rejecting patients to improve profits.
- • Hospital faces financial losses of €9 million annually, prompting prioritization of profitable procedures.
- • Madrid Health Department increases oversight but finds no contractual breaches yet.
- • Political leaders and unions condemn the privatization model and plan legal actions.
Key details
A leaked audio recording involving the CEO of Ribera Salud, Pablo Gallart, revealed directives to increase waiting times and reject certain patients at the Hospital Universitario de Torrejón de Ardoz in Madrid, sparking widespread outrage and scrutiny of the hospital's private management model.
During a September meeting, Gallart proposed reducing interventions to improve profitability by €4 to €5 million, citing the hospital's annual loss of €9 million due to amortizations and financial charges. He explicitly instructed hospital managers to prioritize profitable medical activities and suggested redirecting less profitable patients to other facilities, stating, "desandemos el camino" (let's reverse the path), indicating a shift from previous efforts to reduce waiting lists.
The Community of Madrid's Health Department responded by dispatching a multidisciplinary team to assess the hospital and intensifying oversight, emphasizing that no contractual violations have yet been found but underscoring a zero-tolerance stance on actions that undermine healthcare access. The department convened urgent meetings with Ribera Salud executives and reassured the public of its commitment to quality care across the Madrid Health Service.
Minister of Health Mónica García condemned the privatization model as predatory, announcing plans for legal action over suspected misappropriation of public health funds for private gain. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also denounced these profit-driven practices, accusing political opponents of commodifying healthcare and pledging government defense of public health systems. Political parties PSOE-M and Más Madrid are preparing their own legal responses, while unions CC.OO. and UGT have criticized the "abusive practices" prioritized over patient welfare.
Ribera Salud, which manages multiple hospitals under public-private partnerships, defended its operations by noting that internal discussions could be misinterpreted and asserting ongoing commitment to high-quality patient care supported by independent audits. However, persistent criticism of the privatization model highlights historical concerns of healthcare being subordinated to profit motives, with prior reports indicating public expenditure losses of approximately €7.5 billion from 2003 to 2018.
This unfolding scandal spotlights the tension between private management's profit imperatives and public health service obligations, provoking calls for systemic review and legal scrutiny to safeguard patient rights and healthcare quality in Madrid and beyond.
This article was synthesized and translated from native language sources to provide English-speaking readers with local perspectives.
