Overview
- One in five patients nationally (19.6%) had been waiting more than six months, ranging from 4.24% in Galicia to over 30% in parts of Catalonia and Castilla-La Mancha.
- Madrid reports the shortest waits at 49 days, with just 0.5% of patients over six months, 70,971 people on the list, and a rate of 9.96 per 1,000 inhabitants.
- Andalusia records the longest average wait at 160 days but leads improvement with a 20.7% reduction in pending patients and marked cuts in mean delay.
- Waiting times vary sharply by specialty, led by plastic surgery at 259 days and neurosurgery at 173 days, with the largest backlogs in traumatology, ophthalmology and general surgery.
- The Health Ministry says it is developing a new information system to improve transparency and enable clearer comparisons across autonomous communities.