Retrato del doctor Boucard. Tamara de Lempicka.

"The latest study by the medical journal The Lancet has lowered the euphoria. The public health system dropped ten places at a stroke in 2016, the last year evaluated, with respect to 2015. The research has measured the quality of the world's 195 states by comparing data from 32 curable causes of death with adequate medical care and the population's accessibility to treatment. Spain obtains 92 points out of 100, below the 97 achieved by Iceland and Norway, which are in first place, although it is placed ahead of France, the United Kingdom, the United States or Portugal".

It is not easy to measure the excellence of something as large and complex as a health system where it is usually easier to count the number of transplants than the number of hours holding a dying person's hand. Where the surgical waiting list counts more than the waiting days when I have an appointment with my family doctor or the inefficient robotic surgeries shine brighter than the small surgical processes that nurses and doctors do in primary health centres.
What does seem obvious is that the Spanish health system is leaking. There are big holes under the waterline that overload a tired and entertaining crew shrinking buckets in a gentle way instead of doing a careful and quality assistance as it should.

As it is very slow sinking it is not in the news. The most you will see will be headlines like the one in the Voice of Galicia: &q...