Isabel Díaz Ayuso has ignored the documents published by EL PAÍS that prove the manipulation of the lists at Ramón y Cajal hospital and insists that it is “a hoax.” The president of Madrid has reduced the whole case to “a man who is manipulating medical appointments,” referring to the surgeon who reported the facts. “Among many other niceties, he is known for smashing the boss’s car and for having open disciplinary records,” she said this Thursday in the Madrid Assembly.
However, the case to which Ayuso refers has an acquittal for lack of evidence and a dismissal due to res judicata, according to documentation accessed by this newspaper. Ayuso absolves the two hospital chiefs involved and, just as her Health Minister Fátima Báñez did yesterday, tries to discredit the surgeon’s account, the only one who has come forward among the four colleagues who claim the same.
The accusation without evidence against surgeon Martos is contradicted by emails and documents from the hospital’s admissions service that Martos shared with EL PAÍS, according to which the people responsible for the changes are the head of the Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology service, Basilio de la Torre, and the medical director, Rafael Martínez. The change took place between February 28 and March 14, 2025, and meant that 57 patients with conditions recommending priority surgery (which must be done in less than 90 days) were downgraded to the normal category (less than 180 days), doubling the waiting time. The purpose of this alteration could have been economic because the service chiefs are rewarded if they meet productivity goals, as inferred from one of the emails.
However, it was Vox who spoke first. Its spokesperson, Isabel Pérez Moñino, opened the plenary, as almost always, with a speech on immigration, in this case linked to healthcare, although without directly mentioning the biggest controversy currently hovering over the regional government. “What do you plan to do to protect public services from the pressure caused by illegal immigration? Before you answer by talking about Pedro Sánchez, I want to tell you that Pedro Sánchez cannot be the answer to all Madrid’s problems,” Moñino warned, adding that Sánchez “controls the border,” but once inside the region, Ayuso is responsible for the immigrants. “From the Barajas sieve to the health center there is a cost paid by Madrilenians,” she continued. “The debate is not about abandoning those who need urgent care, it is about ensuring that Spaniards who have paid for our public services are attended to.”
Ayuso reproached her that the far right never proposes anything, and Moñino was given the floor again, but she barely said a sentence and left the ball in the president’s court, who then spoke about the alleged demographic manipulation by the central government. “The challenge is to grow in balance,” she said, “not to grow massively.” “First, you hide everything we are doing in housing, transport, nursing homes, or plans like maternity, where of course rooting is important,” she retorted. “But I also tell you that I prefer to treat and regard a Romanian as one of us, no matter how Romanian they are, because they have been working, contributing, and adding to Madrid for years, but a Spanish delinquent, squatter, and disrespectful to others is not a priority for me. For me, everyone is equal in this region whether you come from Romania or Boadilla del Monte, but you must comply with the law, order, and contribute,” she continued.
Mar Espinar, the socialist spokesperson, began by complaining that she was not allowed to summon the CEO of Planifica Madrid, the company responsible for buying the Chamberí penthouse, and that the regional government does not explain the case. Ayuso said she only had “a spokesperson who screams desperately” in front of her and who has nothing to propose in the face of the 100 measures presented last week in the state of the region debate.
“The censorship and opacity to which this Assembly is subjected only demonstrate the degree of desperation they are in,” Espinar replied. She reproached the contradictory explanations given for the penthouse purchase, which still do not convince the opposition. “We have Ayuso as a victim of imaginary campaigns versus Ayuso as a predator of public services,” she began, to immediately introduce the topic of the day, the waiting lists at Ramón y Cajal Hospital, and compare it with the recent scandal at Torrejón Hospital also revealed by this newspaper.
The complaint about the Torrejón Hospital case, Ayuso told her, was “dismissed,” just as happened “with their hundreds of complaints in nursing homes.” “But now the hoax of the week turns out to be a man who is manipulating medical appointments, his own, who, among many other niceties, is known for smashing the boss’s car and having open disciplinary records. And now it turns out he has to go on the regime’s Sánchezist TV and other media to give us lessons on waiting lists in this community,” Ayuso replied about Dr. Luis Alberto Martos, who reported the facts at Ramón y Cajal.
Más Madrid followed suit, and Manuela Bergerot, its spokesperson, said that changing the severity of patients to make the numbers look good is a “criminal” act. “The most disturbing thing about the Ramón y Cajal case is that it is not an isolated case, it is a pattern. You have more than 360,000 people waiting to be scheduled an appointment so that your numbers look good. You have a perfectly designed plan so that waiting times in the public system increase and so that the benefits go to the Quirón Group,” she added.
Ayuso, determined that the opposition bring proposals to the plenary, asked what their “fiscal plan” was to debate it. “I’ll tell you, Mrs. Ayuso, it all starts with the fact that there is money in Madrid but Quirón takes it all, the rich take it,” Bergerot replied, defending a tax reform to tax the highest incomes. “You can try to convince us that you deserve an official residence, but I still believe that what you deserve is a trial for corruption, because selling the Madrid health budget to Quirón is corruption and buying a penthouse with Madrilenians’ money in front of your mother’s house is too,” she concluded.
“You have no idea about anything,” Ayuso said in return. “You always propose and bring misery because you need there to be many poor and few rich to blame, that is your fiscal policy.” And she accused the “far left” of wanting to “steal” from those who have the most. “This is the region in Spain with the lowest taxes and collects the most, and contributes the most, to the overall public services of all regions. But with one difference, the best public services are provided here,” Ayuso pointed out.
Carlos Díaz-Pache took advantage of his subsequent intervention to assert that the left “keeps inventing cases that don’t work for them: nursing homes, the penthouse, Formula 1, waiting lists.” “It’s all lies, nothing goes well for them because all they do is lie,” he said to reaffirm the Madrid president’s thesis that the case reported by surgeon Martos is a hoax.
The president of Madrid last week navigated the state of the region debate with some solvency, heavily marked by the controversy over the penthouse purchase. Now this new front opens up, which her government frames within its war with the Ministry of Health. Mónica García, the minister and at the same time the Más Madrid candidate to challenge Ayuso for the presidency next year, has expressed solidarity with the surgeon and accuses the president of promoting private healthcare with cases like this. The clash with PSOE and Más Madrid over this issue is guaranteed.
A few hours later, it will be the turn of the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who appears at his own request to explain everything related to the luxury penthouse bought by Planifica Madrid, a public company. Ayuso and the PP have not given a solid answer as to why a property that cannot be used as an office or presidential residence was purchased. It is unknown whether García Martín will reveal if there is any buyer for that property, as the offers submitted to acquire this apartment will be opened today. Neither the opposition parties nor the press have been able to access the justificatory report of the operation.
