The Minister of Health and Social Policies, María Martín, has indicated that her department, with 848 million euros, “receives the largest budget allocation in history for the social and health care of the people of Rioja.” Martín has presented the accounts of his department to the Budget Commission of the Parliament of La Rioja. A budget that “will translate into 1,990.37 euros of investment per inhabitant in Health and 2,645.36 in Health and Social Policies”, being therefore “ambitious, realistic and focused on people.”
And within these parameters, he highlighted “the interest in socio-health coordination, the protection of mental health, the fight against gender violence and the concern to attract and retain professionals in Health, Social Services and Justice.” “The great challenge – said Martín – is the implementation of a model in which we firmly believe is ‘Health cures, Social cares’ for a population with a longer life expectancy, which represents a success for our society. but it also implies needs to which we must respond.”
Health is the policy of the Government of La Rioja “to which the most spending is allocated of the entire Budget project for 2025 and the one that for the second consecutive year receives a greater budget increase.” A total of 634.6 million euros in Health, of which 465.2 euros correspond to the Rioja Health Service.
In them, he continued, the commitment to strengthening Primary Care and the coordination between the different levels of care that begins in Public Health is reflected, as he said, with that main mandate of ensuring the “prevention and protection of disease and health promotion. The real increase in the financial endowment of the Rioja Health Service is 13 million euros, but its allocation includes 48 million more from the Calahorra Hospital.
Lack of health professionals
The shortage of professionals is the main concern in the health field, and also social, which La Rioja is trying to remedy. Thus, to the approval of the Talent Acquisition and Retention Plan within SERIS, other important lines of action are added.
The provision of these positions will seek to cover the increase in doctor and nurse positions expected both with the entry into operation of the new Villanueva Health Center – which will practically double the care capacity of the Rodríguez Paterna that it replaces – and in other health centers that concentrate high care pressure that the Ministry wants to alleviate by adding professionals.
“From Health, we heal; and we care about healing the body, but also about healing the mind,” said María Martín, aware that one of the main scourges that plague our society are mental and emotional health problems. It is one of the great challenges that the Government of La Rioja has set for this Legislature, with the double aspect of prevention and care, from the Mental Health Plan.
In terms of health infrastructure, 2025 will be a decisive year in the project of the new Center for Specialties and Major Ambulatory Surgery ‘Adoración Sáenz’ (1.69 million euros, with the expectation of having the project drawn up at the end of the year and beginning the execution in January 2026); as well as for the expansion of the Calahorra health center (3.30 million, for some works that have just begun), to cite two examples.
In addition, other items of interest are contemplated for projects such as the new health center in Alberite (200,000 euros); the reform of the health centers of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Murillo de Río Leza and Nájera or the building that will house the Medicine studies (650,000 euros).
Social Services
In terms of social policies, the Government of La Rioja has increased the budget for people’s care in 2025 to a total of 213.07 million euros, for this increasingly older society. The budget that the Government allocates to long-term care, promotion of autonomy in day centers, telecare and active participation centers is more than 81 million, to which we must add 8 million of investment in improving infrastructure and more than 23.3 from extrabudgetary funds.
In the attempt to delay this dependency as much as possible, a key service is home help, provided directly by the town councils, but with strong support from the regional Executive. Proof of this is the increase of two million that is included in the benefits chapter for 2025 (from 24.3 million to 26.1 million, in an item that includes support for other programs aimed at families). Living longer also implies the consumption of medications and orthoprosthetic products. This increase causes the benefits and pharmacy item managed by the Ministry of Health and Social Policies to rise by 6.98 percent compared to 2024.
The desire for deinstitutionalization also presides over the policy of child protection and care for people with disabilities. For minors, the Government of La Rioja is promoting foster care and adoption programs; as well as programs such as the one developed by the Red Cross to continue accompanying these boys and girls when they come of age.
In addition, it is investing in the expansion of the residential resources that make up its basic network for social care and that must also provide support to the extent of our possibilities to this national emergency caused by the political management of unaccompanied immigrant minors who end up in our country.
Among the almost 12 million allocated to this, we must highlight the financial provision for the 14 new places that we will enable to expand the network. Likewise, the Department of Justice and Interior is also working on providing more accommodation places for juvenile offenders to serve their sentences. In the field of disability, the push developed by associations with a long history in our community is fundamental. By 2025, the Government will financially support its efforts with 10 million euros.
Furthermore, the launch of the Center for Comprehensive Care for Victims of Sexual Violence in La Rioja at the end of this year will mean a qualitative leap in care for victims; a new resource that will be added to those already available to the Government and that will also reinforce the work that has been carried out by other institutions.
To this center, progress will be added in the construction and improvement of other social infrastructures: new residence in Torrecilla (9.7 million euros, with European financing); construction of the day center in Haro (6 million euros, financed with European funds); new residence in Baños de Río Tobía (250,000 euros); projects for senior centers (1.04 million euros); residences for the elderly in Calahorra and Lardero (439,000 and 210,000 euros). The new or better provisions in Justice are also included in next year’s Accounts. They include the Institutional Hall for the Palace of Justice (1.2 million) that has been demanded so much and also actions that will dignify the attention in the Calahorra Courts or improve the Valvanera Center.
The budget also includes increases for the CEIS and Civil Protection, as a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to the maintenance and renewal of emergency departments.
The opposition’s response
PSOE and Podemos-IU have agreed in describing as “insufficient” the budget of the Ministry of Health and Social Policies, in which, according to Vox, “the numbers do not add up.” The PP, for its part, has indicated that the accounts of this department “support public policy.”
The deputy of the Vox Parliamentary Group, Héctor Alacid, has indicated that “it is very complicated to understand the budgets of this department, because the numbers do not add up anywhere.” However, he stated that “personnel expenses are going down, as are current transfers and real investments.”
He has doubted the fact that the counselor has indicated that “the waiting lists should be reduced, because that is the great handicap they have and, in addition, they take care of making them up.” Alacid has also demanded that the Family Plan be approved.
For his part, the deputy of the Podemos-IU Parliamentary Group, Carlos Ollero, has indicated that the budget “is insufficient”, and “it cannot be sold with social budgets when the entire budget grows by 7 percent and specifically in health it grows only 3.75 percent. “There are enormous deficiencies in health, where the spending on primary care that we calculate amounts to only 16 percent of the total budget and all that the experts ask for is a minimum of 25 percent,” he added.
He highlighted that “privatisations are increasing a lot with respect to hospital care, specialized care, it is growing by almost 23 percent and this is also not helping to solve the waiting lists.” In social services “there are items that are decreasing, such as specific centers dedicated to disabilities and especially in mental health in which “we do not see a global strategy.”
On behalf of the PSOE, its regional deputy, María Somalo, has pointed out that the health budget “is insufficient” since it grows “a pyrrhic 3.75%, which will be used to finance increases in the CPI and personnel expenses.” In fact, he lamented that “the increase in health is half of what the total Budget increases.” With these figures, “it is evident that more health personnel are not going to be hired.”
The socialist deputy has highlighted that “since the PP governs, fewer resources have been allocated to healthcare.” Thus, “with the previous Socialist Government, in 2023, investment in health represented 31.3 percent of the total Budget, while now that Budget barely reaches 30 percent.” He has regretted that the ‘popular’ Government “is more concerned with private healthcare than with reinforcing public healthcare”, while in Social Services it increases “a scant 1.94 percent, an increase lower than the rise in the CPI and which will serve, fundamentally, to cover the increase in personnel expenses and for current expenses.”
For her part, the spokesperson for the PP Parliamentary Group, Cristina Maiso, has highlighted that the Ministry’s accounts “will strengthen the commitment to a strong, rigorous public policy, both in terms of health and social services.” He has highlighted, in health matters, “the commitment and reinforcement made to Primary Care, to hospital care, as well as the strong investments in the Calahorra Health Center or the ‘Adoración Sáenz’ in Logroño.”
The ‘popular’ spokesperson has highlighted “the promotion of mental health”, in addition to the progress, in terms of social services, of “policies to promote deinstitutionalization”. He has valued “the increase in the items in dependency benefits by 25 percent compared to the State not fulfilling its legislative obligation to finance dependency by 50 percent, because it is currently doing so by 23 percent. ”.