Public Health and Nursing

Health coverage is understood as those objectives that guide the transformation of health systems so that all individuals and communities have equitable access to the comprehensive, guaranteed and enforceable services they need, throughout their lives, with quality and without financial hardship. It addresses the social determinants of health and emphasises groups in situations of poverty and vulnerability.  The current World Health Organisation Strategy defines  the sine qua non conditions that will enable countries to guide their policies and measure the success and speed of their progress towards universal health coverage. Its basic antecedents date back to the Alma Ata conference in 1978, the revised criteria in 2005 on the necessary renewal of Primary Health Care, the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health (2011), the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) (2012), the Discussion for the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Commitment of Member States at the 52nd Directing Council of PAHO/WHO (2013). In European countries, Spain is the 20th country in the world with the highest density of doctors, with 3.9 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, according to the results of the Annual Health Statistics Report 2018, published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The exhaustive study includes data from 194 countries over the last decade. Ahead of Spain are European countries such as Greece, with a ratio of 6.3 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants; Portugal (4.4); Germany (4.2); and Italy (4). While in 2012 Spain was the 51st country with the most nurses per 1,000 inhabitants (with

5.1 professionals), in this new edition the country has dropped to 59th place. This is a significant decrease despite the fact that the ratio has risen to 5.3 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants. If we compare this year's data with those of previous editions of the report, this year's figure shows a significant reduction compared to 2015. In this conference the author reviews the current situation of some macro-indicators and their behaviour by country.