The Community of Madrid acknowledged this Wednesday that the waiting lists at Ramón y Cajal Hospital were manipulated, but surprisingly exonerated the two identified heads and directed its accusation against one of the four doctors who reported the facts, the only one who came forward, Luis Alberto Martos. The Health Minister, Fátima Matute, made this public condemnation despite acknowledging that the investigation has not concluded. Furthermore, Martos has not been interviewed, according to him, and the evidence provided by the surgeon to EL PAÍS clearly shows that he is not the author.
“This case is very simple,” Matute said, just one day after EL PAÍS uncovered the case. “The same complainant is the one who manipulated the waiting lists. He is a worker at Ramón y Cajal Hospital who irregularly manipulated the severity of 57 trauma patients for his own benefit, to work less and operate on less complex cases,” she added, at the press conference following the Wednesday Government Council. Shortly after, President Isabel Díaz Ayuso posted on X a video of the minister saying these words and the message: “The hoax of the day against the Government of the Community of Madrid.”
The baseless accusation 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 service, Basilio de la Torre, and the medical director, Rafael Martínez. The change occurred between February 28 and March 14, 2025, and meant that 57 patients with conditions that warranted 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 motive for this alteration could have been financial because the heads of service are rewarded if they meet productivity goals, as inferred from one of the emails.
Martos provided screenshots from the computer system showing external communications (with the patient) and internal communications (between departments) about patients on the surgical waiting list. In those documents, the administrative staff noted that the patients’ priority had been changed with messages like “priority change p.i. (by indication) Dr. De la Torre” or “priority change p.o. (by order) from trah (traumatology) and medical direction.”
Additionally, Martos also provided several emails sent to hospital officials by himself and another surgeon from the same service, Susana Alonso, who is his partner. In the responses from those superiors, no one accuses Martos. On the contrary, they do not deny that the changes were made by the two identified.
Dr. Alonso wrote on March 14, 2025, to the head of the service to complain, directly accusing him of the change. She attached a screenshot showing the modification to one of her patients with a note indicating that it had been ordered by the two superiors: “Could you explain the reasons that justify it, excluding the surgeon’s criteria?”
The head, de la Torre, admitted those alterations and gave the doctor a response she did not understand: “Thank you for your reply, but I did not understand anything you just told me,” she said.
Three days later, the head wrote back with a clearer message. Again, he admitted those changes and implied that the reason was the efficiency target agreed with the Health Ministry: “Keep in mind that the hospital’s commitment with them is that they be operated on within 90 days,” he replied in writing. “If they are not operated on within that period, the management receives notification from the Ministry to have them operated on as soon as possible.”
Read more The National Police arrest five of the six suspects in the ultra attack in Oviedo
He added that he had met with “management and the admissions service” to resolve how preferential patients should be treated and told Dr. Alonso: “Avoid as much as possible marking them as preferential, and if you set a tentative date with the patient for surgery and the preoperative study is requested as preferential.” This was equivalent to telling her they could operate whenever they wanted but deceiving the system about the type of priority.
Martos also provided this newspaper with his own emails complaining about what happened to the medical director on March 21, 2025; and to the manager, Carlos Mingo, on April 7 and 28 of that year. Likewise, Dr. Alonso filed a complaint with the manager. He never accused Martos of the facts. In his response to both surgeons, he tried to downplay the matter and suggested that from then on they contact their superiors in the Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology service.
The surgeon also provided evidence that the two identified heads, de la Torre and Martínez, requested the manager on April 29, 2025, and May 7, 2025, to open a protocol for prevention and action in situations of internal conflicts and harassment. The manager processed the procedure, which has followed its course and has not yet concluded. In fact, this Wednesday at 11:00, de la Torre appeared before the Directorate General of Human Resources of the Health Ministry. Martos attended as a witness.
The boss’s car
To win the battle of public opinion, the Community of Madrid has tried to tarnish Martos’s image. “It is striking that the worst minister in history and her entourage take into consideration a complainant with disciplinary records who has also been accused of slashing the tires and scratching the car of his head of service,” Matute said. OkDiario published hours later an article claiming that Martos is “charged” for those acts, which was shared on X by Ayuso.
Martos had warned this newspaper about this prior conflict with his boss, de la Torre. He now responds that it is false that he is charged and that he has been acquitted of that accusation, launched by his boss in 2023. To prove it, he shared two acquittal rulings with this newspaper. He is aware that they are trying to discredit him with personal attacks, but he responds that they are trying to divert attention: “The important thing is not whether I am a jerk or a fool, the important thing is what they have done.”
His partner, Susana Alonso, wanted to remain anonymous in the first news. But she has changed her mind after Matute pointed out this Wednesday that one of the anonymous doctors supporting her version had a family relationship with Martos. “Yes, I have been his wife since 2022. But that means nothing. I have been a surgeon at Ramón y Cajal since 2003.”
Do you have something to tell? Write to the authors at s.castrogarciacomunicacion@gmail.com and fpeinado@elpais.es
Read more Moreno shields himself behind the Ceuta crisis: “Andalusia’s will also be his Parliament”
