Research background
Our research background
Hospital care is an essential part of the health system responsible for looking after one of human beings’ most precious assets: their health. This area of study is included as a thematic priority in the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation [Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica-Técnica de Innovación] 2021-2023. The participation of private business and the public sector in its creation has not followed a linear path, with one or the other predominating in different historical stages.
We have a long joint research background on public and private hospital system development in Spain from an international perspective. In fact, this is our third research project working together.
2016-2018
The first project, entitled “Financing, Management and Construction of the Spanish Hospital System from an Economic History perspective: between public and private sectors (1942-2015)» [“Financiación, gestión y construcción del sistema hospitalario español desde la historia económica: entre lo público y lo privado (1942-2015)”], Ref. HAR2015-66063-R., was developed in 2016-2018, comprising a research team led by Jerònia Pons (Univ. Seville) and including Margarita Vilar (Univ. A Coruña), Pilar León (Univ. Navarra), Cristina Borra (Univ. Seville) and Pablo Gutiérrez (Univ. Seville).
This first project achieved two fundamental goals:
- Quantifying the number of hospitals according to their proprietorship and thereby designing the creation of the public and private hospital map in Spain from a historical perspective.
- Ascertaining the role of public financing in the creation of this hospital system, which enabled its historical construction.
2019-2021
The second project, entitled “The historical keys of hospital development in Spain and its international comparison during the twentieth century” [“Las claves históricas del desarrollo hospitalario en España y su comparación internacional durante el siglo XX”], funded by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation -State Research Agency- [Ref. RTI2018-094676-B-I00], was developed in 2019-2021, comprising a research team led by Jerònia Pons (Univ. Seville) and Margarita Vilar (Univ. A Coruña), and with a team comprising Pilar León (Univ. Navarra), Daniel Lanero (Univ. Santiago de Compostela), Josep Barceló (Univ. Roviri i Virgili), Bruno Casal (Univ. A Coruña), Víctor Nuñez (Univ. Seville) and Felicia Racoare (Univ. Seville).
This second project achieved two fundamental goals:
- Analysis of factors other than financing (political, territorial, economic and business, social and cultural) which, along with the system of financing, affected the creation of the historical hospital map.
- Comparison of the historical development of the Spanish hospital system with other countries and thereby further promoting an international perspective.
In sum, the first project focused on the construction of a historical series, the quantification of public and private hospitals, especially in the public sector, putting special emphasis on financing; the second analysed the political, religious, cultural, institutional and territorial factors that provoked an unequal development in Spain, and an international comparison; the current project intends to focus on the advance of the private sector, analysing the market interest in covering this type of demand, with growing interest from the banking sector and investment funds, and their strategies with respect to the shortcomings and problems of the public hospital system, all accompanied by an international comparison.
