27/06/2014

Boi Ruiz: 'Good Healthcare Management Should Focus Primarily on People'

Politics is a service. Or so the ancient philosophers said. Catalan Health Minister Boi Ruiz (born in Barcelona in 1954), who received his doctoral degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Universitat de Barcelona, accepted the proposal from Artur Mas to lead the Ministry of Health so that he could, "realize my ambition to provide a service to Catalonia and contribute my own experience". Boi Ruiz visited the UIC for the closing ceremony of the Master's Degree in Healthcare Management, of which he was the first director. He responded to the interview published in the latest edition of Newsuic. Here we publish an extract of the interview*.

What did you see
in the UIC and in this Master's degree that made you get involved? 

 The
UIC is a very prestigious
institution, which is fully established within the Catalan university
landscape. I felt that I could carry out a rewarding job in a faculty of medicine
that would fulfil my teaching vocation and allow me to work alongside the
future managers of Catalonia
and abroad.

What makes good
healthcare management? 

Good
management should take objectives into account, but healthcare management should
focus primarily on people: professionals, who work hard, and citizens, who should
be the focal point of the healthcare system. It should be transparent,
participatory and unafraid of enforcing accountability.

In the current
climate of budget cuts, we are said to be losing our basic rights. What do you
believe these “basic rights” are?

They
include our right to healthcare and protection. These should be maintained
fairly and without discrimination. This right has often been confused with how
near a centre or service is, and that's not right. What we have to guarantee is
access to the best possible care in the best possible location.

Have we got into
the bad habit of going to the doctor the moment we feel the slightest bit ill?

We've
got a highly accessible healthcare system, and this ease of access means that some
people make use of it regularly. But there's an issue that we have to bear in
mind here: our system is geared up to deal with serious illnesses, and even
very serious illnesses, but we haven't managed to find a good, comprehensive
approach to dealing with chronic patients. Paradoxically, this situation is the
result of our excellent medical care, which is adding years to our lives.

So we have to
discuss the rational use of resources?

Yes,
that's a fundamental point. The current road map of the Ministry of Health, its
work tool, is the 2011-2015 Health Plan, and I can assure you that this
strategic document takes account of all possibilities and all the actions that
must be carried out to make our system sustainable, without losing any quality
or fairness, while maintaining the efficiency of centres and improving the
system.

*You
can read the whole interview by clicking on this link.