The Ayuso Government takes 257 million from Emergencies, social services and Transport to pay bills for Madrid's healthcare system

The Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso approved on June 24 to withdraw 257.63 million euros from six public Madrid organizations to transfer them to the Madrid Health Service. The money comes from entities linked to transport, emergencies, social care, residences, the reintegration of minors, and occupational safety.

The operation came after the Ministry of Health requested an additional 588 million to finance hospitals, medical prescriptions, and pending invoices from health centers. The agreement of the Governing Council, to which 'elDiario.es' has had access, recognizes that "the credits allocated in the 2026 budget are insufficient" to cover these current expenses.

The discrepancy appears just six months after the regional Executive presented a record health budget of 11,009.5 million euros, 5.3% more than the previous year and equivalent to 35.9% of all regional accounts. Despite this increase, Health needed a new injection to maintain the ordinary payments of Sermas.

Transport contributes almost half of the money

The main source of funds is the Regional Transport Consortium of Madrid, which provides 124 million euros. This amount represents almost half of all the transfer authorized by the regional Government.

The Health Contracting Agency contributes another 59.9 million, while the Madrid Social Care Agency, responsible for residences and public centers, provides 32.1 million. The Agency for the Re-education and Reintegration of Juvenile Offenders adds 22.5 million.

The list continues with the 17.5 million from the Madrid 112 Security and Emergencies Agency, in the midst of wildfire season, and the 1.63 million withdrawn from the Regional Institute for Safety and Health at Work. The six movements jointly reach 257.63 million.

The Madrid Executive maintains that these amounts were liquid availabilities that the organizations did not need to carry out the activity included in their budgets. The agreement allows them to be taken first to the Central Treasury of the Community of Madrid and then to generate the corresponding credit for Sermas.

The formula is contemplated in article 80.2 of the Treasury Law of the Community of Madrid. The norm authorizes the Treasury to dispose of the liquid money of public organizations in "exceptional situations", provided there is prior authorization from the Governing Council.

The file had to justify this exceptional nature through the financial tensions that the delay in invoices could cause and the need to maintain payment terms to suppliers. The General Intervention and the General Directorate of Budgets reported favorably on the operation.

The Ministry of Health offered a different explanation this Tuesday regarding its exceptionality. The department defends that it is a habitual, audited, and previously used mechanism to take advantage of available remnants. According to their version, "it is nothing strange or exceptional". The file and the political response thus use opposite terms to describe the same transfer.

The agreement also does not specify what forecasts allowed those 257.63 million to be considered unnecessary in the six affected organizations. The regional government will have to explain if the withdrawal modifies its spending plans, its investments, or the available funds to face unforeseen events during the rest of the fiscal year.

Health requested 588 million and more than half is still missing

The amount mobilized covers less than 44% of the 588 million claimed by the Ministry of Health. The request distributes the money among different hospitals, health centers, medical prescriptions, and payments to suppliers.

La Paz University Hospital concentrates more than 95 million and Doce de Octubre, close to 91 million. Ramón y Cajal and Clínico San Carlos also need more than 50 additional million each, according to the known documentation.

The comparison between the request and the transferred money leaves 330.37 million still uncovered. Socialist deputy Sara Bonmati has estimated the difference at 325.8 million, starting from a transfer of 262 million, an amount she also uses in her X thread. However, the sum of the six detailed movements reaches 257.63 million. The Community of Madrid will have to clarify the origin of this difference.

Bonmati, who obtained the documentation through the Transparency Portal, accuses the regional Executive of resorting to other public services to contain the financial problem of healthcare. The deputy speaks of an "attempt to cover up the dismantling of Madrid's public health system" and questions which organizations will have to provide the money that is still missing.

The PSOE-M also warns of the political impact of withdrawing money from organizations facing their own problems. Bonmati recalls users' complaints about public transport frequencies and air conditioning, the lack of staff and refrigeration in some residences, and the demands of forest firefighters to reinforce fire prevention and extinction resources.

The deputy also maintains that the file includes 941.2 million euros corresponding to 2025 invoices that were still pending at the beginning of this year. This burden would have consumed, from the first months, a part of the healthcare accounts that the Ayuso Government presented as the largest in the history of the Community of Madrid.

The regional Executive rejects that the transfer constitutes an anomaly and assures that the entire process has the control of the General Intervention, Treasury, and the Governing Council. It also maintains that the money withdrawn from the six organizations was available and lacked an immediate need within their budgeted activities.

The transfer of 257.63 million is already authorized and will allow Sermas to continue paying hospitals, prescriptions, and suppliers. Healthcare requested 588 million to sustain these ordinary expenses before the end of the first semester. The Ayuso Government still has to explain where the rest will come from and why the allocations approved for 2026 fell short so soon.