Manuel Franco
Head of International Relations at the Spanish Society of Public Health and Healthcare Administration (SESPAS), organiser of the 2026 European Public Health Conference (EUPHA), Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and professor and researcher at the universities of Alcalá and Johns Hopkins
From a scientific point of view, the most important thing is the lack of organisation, the lack of data, of coordination, of what is nowadays called surveillance and monitoring. This means that because we do not have a public health agency, we will not have a system for collecting data and possibly analysing data that will help us as a country to understand what is happening and make decisions.
Public health is based on data analysis and decision-making in terms of interventions for the promotion and protection of health. The lack of understanding that we need this organisation at a national level is tremendous, because what it does is curtail the knowledge that is needed to advance health and well-being. The agency planned not only to have this monitoring function, but also to evaluate policies and interventions, not only in alerts, but also in the protection against infectious diseases and chronic non-communicable diseases, which are the most important in any European country, at least.
On the other hand, there are two fundamental things and that is that a State Public Health Agency would reinforce the role we have, not only at the local, regional and national level, but also the role that Spain has in Europe and in the world. And that is increasingly important in public health, as we saw in the pandemic: many of the decisions that were made were made at the European level and they are decisions based on data, on what is happening with the disease or data on what materials, what medicines, what organisation is needed to protect health.
And finally, I think we also make a mistake in terms of communication. This country lacks an organisation that speaks to the nation about health and public health, and that doesn't exist.
It's also worth saying that other European countries have solved it very quickly. Germany is a country that, for historical reasons, didn't even have a general directorate for public health in its government, it didn't have an agency and it didn't have an international global vision. During the pandemic, Germany created a general directorate for public health within its government, it has created a State Public Health Agency and it now has a WHO centre in Berlin.
These are decisions that have been made today not to make progress on something that has an impact on the health and well-being of our population and I find it incomprehensible.