With the understanding that health is a fundamental right and that public health is one of the basic pillars of our welfare state, since 2015 the Amancio Ortega Foundation has been developing a plan to support the renovation of technological equipment in public hospitals, specifically in the area of diagnosis and radiotherapy treatment of cancer. The scheme began in Galicia and Andalucía in October 2015 and May 2016, respectively. In the first months of 2017 it was extended to the rest of the Spanish regions. Each of the health ministries defined the specific equipment to be acquired in accordance with their own strategic plans for the modernization and technological upgrading, and the acquisition is carried out through public administrative procedures. With a total budget of more than 300 million euros, this intervention by the Amancio Ortega Foundation will enable the installation of 450 state-of-the-art pieces of equipment with the best features available on the market.
The addition of these new devices, such as digital mammography devices with tomosynthesis and advanced linear accelerators, has a direct impact on the quality of life of public health users, as they enable more accurate diagnoses and provide patients with more effective, less aggressive and shorter-lasting treatments. In addition to all the Spanish regional governments, in 2017 the Amancio Ortega Foundation signed a similar agreement with Ingesa, the public institution dependent on the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality that is responsible for the health services of Ceuta and Melilla. This agreement also includes equipment for the National Dosimetry Center, an institution responsible for guaranteeing the safety of public health professions exposed to radiation.