The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Tuesday that Zaragoza will be the headquarters of the State Public Health Agency (AESP), an organization that was approved by the Congress of Deputies in June last year and whose creation has been long demanded by the health sector since 15 years ago the General Public Health Law, in its article 47, established the need for its creation.
Sánchez highlighted that the choice of Zaragoza follows the path of the “decentralization process” of public bodies. Up to eight cities —Toledo, Granada, Zaragoza, Murcia, Barcelona, León, Oviedo, and Lugo— had applied to host the AESP. “I believe it is a new example of what it means to bet on territorial cohesion in our country,” Sánchez said, congratulating the people of Zaragoza for this decision made in the Council of Ministers.
The AESP is born with the aim of strengthening the capacities of all public administrations to improve the health of the population, reduce inequalities, and protect against health threats. The agency will act in coordination with autonomous communities and other administrations to monitor the health status of the population and social determinants and aims to have a leadership role that allows setting health policy priorities based on scientific evidence and under the principle of “one health” (which integrates human, animal, and environmental health).
Among its functions are public information and communication about risks, coordination in health crises, and strengthening regional services. Additionally, it will offer technical and scientific advice, promote innovation, research, and training in public health, and foster cooperation among system actors. All this, “with special attention to social determinants of health and social health inequalities,” according to the law approved in Congress.
The need for an agency became evident during the pandemic, when a small department of the Ministry of Health (the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies) had to take charge of collecting epidemiological data and monitoring it without sufficient staff or infrastructure.
The Minister of Health, Mónica García, celebrated the choice of the headquarters on her X account: “We already have the headquarters that will host the State Public Health Agency!! Eight magnificent candidacies and objective and concurrent criteria to designate Zaragoza as the future headquarters. We are a government committed to protecting health, public health, and monitoring future health emergencies,” she wrote.
