[Immigrants in the Spanish public healthcare system:participative and general healthcare matters].

OBJECTIVE

Citizens should be involved in the public healthcare decision making process in an active manner through participation mechanisms. The objective of this study was to identify those participative processes within the Spanish public healthcare system were immigrants are involved, observe the differences between some processes and others, as well as propose proposals for improvement.

METHODS

A quantitative and qualitative methodology was used, using the techniques of the questionnaire and the documentary analysis. This study includes all the Spanish public healthcare system regional offices as we conducted interviews in all the regional offices, from May to October 2018, responding to it the totality of public administrations. For the evaluation we used an ad hoc questionnaire to identify any participatory policies initiated by the Spanish public health care system regional offices in which immigrants took an active role. We also conducted a desk research of the webpages of the public healthcare system regional offices. The answers to the questionnaire allowed a descriptive and qualitative analysis of the participation of immigrants in Spanish health services.

RESULTS

We found that the existing participative processes were not promoting a real active citizen´s involvement. However, there are some regions that are taking into account the immigrants opinion in order to implement new healthcare services or even to design healthcare policies.

CONCLUSIONS

We have identified participative processes where immigrants are participating mostly in Andalucía, but also in Baleares, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Madrid, País Vasco, La Rioja and Comunidad Valenciana.