Catalan hospitals are planning organizational measures to counteract a possible decrease in activity as a result of the Not a minute more campaign, through which numerous specialists have given up care activities that exceed their ordinary working hours, in demand of work improvements. Metges de Catalunya (MC) attributes to this campaign, launched on June 1, a significant increase in the surgical waiting list in Catalonia, while the Department of Health relativizes this impression by arguing that the period studied is too short to draw conclusions.
According to MC, a total of 258 medical services – with special emphasis on anesthesiology and resuscitation – from 45 public and subsidized hospitals – 60% of the centers in Catalonia – have joined the campaign to abandon the so-called peonadas, the care activity that exceeds the ordinary and mandatory working day and that is paid additionally. Regarding the field of primary care, 54 centers support the initiative, which aims to make visible that the public health system is sustained largely thanks to the voluntary activity of doctors. At the same time, MC demands an improvement in the working and healthcare conditions of doctors.
In this context of conflict, hospitals are planning, for the coming months, organizational measures to prevent the reduction in complementary activity from having an impact on waiting lists at the end of the year, as La Vanguardia has learned from sources at the Servei Català de la Salut.
An analysis of Salut data carried out by MC highlights that last July, 33,936 surgical interventions were carried out in Catalonia, 2,940 (8%) less than in the same month last year. The surgical waiting list stood at 225,334 people, 4,576 more (2.1%) than at the end of July 2025. In the opinion of the union, these figures constitute a first sign of the effect of its campaign. If the increase in July 2025 was only 0.2% compared to 2024, this year it has multiplied almost 11, the union calculates. “The health system has normalized for too long that doctors work beyond their hours to sustain an activity that cannot be assumed with the staff and resources available,” said the general secretary of MC, Xavier Lleonart.
Unlike surgical activity, the possible impact of medical protest does not affect diagnostic tests. Although 86,163 tests were carried out in July, 6.6% less than last year, the number of pending patients was reduced by 3.1%, a decrease similar to that recorded in the previous year.
CatSalut admits that the decrease in surgical activity observed in July “may be partially related to the Not One Minute More campaign,” but specifies that the extra activity, which represents around 15% of the total and essentially serves to reduce waiting lists, usually corresponds to less complex operations or tests. “The most complex, urgent or oncological activity is scheduled within the ordinary day and is not affected by this campaign.”
According to CatSalut, the July photograph presented by MC, with an 8% decrease in surgical activity, is too partial. “If we analyze the first seven months of the year, 250,677 interventions have been carried out, compared to 257,311 in the same period of 2025: 2.6% less.” A difference that already existed before the campaign: the accumulated activity in May was 2.8% lower than that of the first five months of 2025.
On the other hand, it warns that the growth of the waiting list in July 2026 almost 11 times compared to 2025 is mathematically correct, but is practically identical to that registered in 2024. “These data show that the evolution of the activity responds to various factors and that a broader time series is necessary to assess the specific impact of the campaign,” concludes Salut.
A hot autumn
Salut temporizes in the face of threats from the medical union
While the Department of Health insists on "recognizing the work and effort of health professionals to respond daily to a high demand for care", and proposes continuing with the shared objective of "improving accessibility, increasing the response of the system and progressively reducing lists and waiting times", the doctors' union threatens to increase the confrontation if there is no improvement in their working and care conditions. “We will escalate the conflict and the impact will be very important because the last quarter of the year is when most of the healthcare and surgical activity is concentrated,” says Xavier Lleonart. “It is not about harming patients, but about making visible that the system cannot continue to function thanks to the permanent overexertion of professionals,” he says.
