La geriatría dentro del sistema sanitario español: pasado y futuro

Abstract

Geriatrics is the medical specialty that cares for health problems of older persons, including acute care, chronic care and rehabilitation, in various settings such as the community, hospitals and long-term care. This article analyzes the situation of geriatric medicine in Spain before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the challenges and changes needed to improve geriatric care in the future.

The first part of this paper describes the main landmarks of the Spanish health system. In 1986, a key law (Ley General de Sanidad) was approved by the Spanish Parliament, launching the development of the national health care system. In parallel, we describe and comment the development of geriatrics in Spain along this period is described. Later, the interactions between the health system and geriatrics along the next decades is reported, using 2020 (when started the COVID-19 pandemic started) as deadline of our past history. In the second part, the most important characteristics of the current situation of Spanish and European geriatric medicine are described, in order to propose ideas on how geriatric care can be designed and reimagined in the future.