García-Page announces a regional plan for lung cancer prevention and an “advanced” telestroke protocol to accelerate response times
Tomelloso (Ciudad Real), March 26, 2025.- The head of the regional government, Emiliano García-Page, announced this morning the upcoming launch of a regional plan for lung cancer prevention that is currently in the “pilot testing phase in Albacete,” which “will be the next plan we can implement” and will be added to the preventive programs for breast, colon, or cervical cancer that have already saved “thousands and thousands of lives in Castilla-La Mancha” in recent years.
He made this announcement in Tomelloso, at the inauguration of the new health center in the municipality, emphasizing that “today healthcare requires a much broader conception” that prioritizes prevention, which represents “one of the great challenges for the future,” that is, “going out to look for the disease ourselves” to allow for “anticipating a diagnosis.”
Also, on this Wednesday, which marks World Cervical Cancer Prevention Day, García-Page highlighted that “approximately 22,500 women have seen, reduced, or solved the problem” in the Autonomous Community, leading to the conclusion that “we could say that many of them have avoided death.”
“This matters,” even though “all prevention plans overload the lists because we ask people to come,” he noted, adding that “in addition to saving lives,” prevention “represents a good investment for the healthcare system because it prevents long and enormously costly illnesses and treatments.”
In this context, the head of the regional government announced the implementation, “before the end of the year,” of the telestroke protocol that will increase response capacity to this condition, which is currently one of the leading causes of mortality and acquired disability in our country. “A stroke can happen anywhere and at any time,” so this regional protocol will allow the best specialist, wherever they may be, to provide care through advanced technological mechanisms,” he emphasized.
Therefore, he concluded that “many things can be discussed, but it will be very difficult for someone to argue that Castilla-La Mancha has a clear commitment, a clear priority for health,” he summarized.
The training of new doctors has multiplied by eight
Similarly, Emiliano García-Page referred to the importance of “the preparation and qualification of personnel” after the number of physicians being trained in Castilla-La Mancha multiplied by eight compared to 2015, when “only 194 specialists were being trained,” while currently, “we are training 1,616.”
“It was evident that a shortage of doctors was being created, which has been very difficult to overcome because training a doctor, which costs a lot of money, is key and definitive,” he reflected. In this regard, García-Page recalled that “there were years when doctors were not lacking, they were on the unemployment lists,” and that now “there are more doctors because we want to have more,” specifically, “12,500 more professionals in these years.”
Leading in Primary Care throughout Spain
In his speech at the inauguration of this thirty-third Primary Care center since he took office in the region, Emiliano García-Page valued not only the increase in centers but also the hiring of professionals and the increase in healthcare technological equipment in what he called “a multidisciplinary effort” that goes “in all directions,” specifying that “we are the second autonomous community in Spain that has grown the most in Primary Healthcare,” representing “80 percent of the care.”
During this inauguration, the Castilla-La Mancha president was accompanied by the second vice president of the Junta, José Manuel Caballero; the Health Minister, Jesús Fernández Sanz; the Junta delegate in Ciudad Real, Blanca Fernández; and the mayor of Tomelloso, Javier Navarro, as well as by the leaders and professionals of this new health center that will start operating as such next Monday and will hold open days for professionals and the general public this Thursday and Friday, respectively.