Spain public health system

Our empirical evaluation of competition between pharmaceuticals was based on information on prescription drug consumption by non-hospital patients in the National Health Service (NHS) in England in 19% and the Sistema Nacional de Salud or SNS (National Health System) in Spain in 1997. The authors wish to thank Statistics Division IE of the UK Department of Health and the Directorate-General of Pharmacy and Health Products of the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs for supplying us with these data. As can be seen from Table 4.1, public consumption of pharmaceuticals... 

On I May 1981, in a district of Madrid in Spain, an 8-year-old boy died, apparently from a disease affecting the respiratory system. Later six more members of the family feU ill with similar symptoms. Other cases were reported at around the same time and within a few days the Directorate of Public Health became aware of the problem. This marked the beginning of an unusual outbreak of respiratory disease in and around Madrid. Within a week 150 or more cases per day were being recorded in various areas of Spain, and by June there were 2,000 cases in hospitals in Madrid. The outbreak rapidly became an epidemic, with over 10,000 cases being seen in hospitals in two months, and more than 20,000 cases were recorded by December 1982. There were a total of 351 fatalities. The iUness was widely reported and was so serious that the World Health Organization convened a conference in 1983. ... 

In order to completely understand the situation in Spain, it is important to know first how the Spanish health system works. In Spain, there are public and private hospitals (around 795 hospitals see Fig. 2). ° Every Spanish person has the right to free public health care however, if patients prefer, they can go to a private hospital and pay for the health care that they receive. In addition, some... 

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