Spain is searching for answers to a healthcare scandal after authorities in the Andalusia region failed to inform thousands of women of their breast cancer screening results.
The southern region’s conservative-run government said around 2,000 women had in recent years not been informed of the results of mammograms carried out in public hospitals.
These results concerned inconclusive procedures that would have led to follow-up tests, potentially missing cancer cases and the chance to treat the women.
Regions are responsible for public healthcare in Spain’s decentralised political system.
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But the scandal spilt over into the national arena, with far-left Health Minister Monica García saying on social media she had required all the regions to submit cancer screening data “to strengthen surveillance”.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also lashed out at conservative leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo in parliament over the scandal, saying his party “defended the interests of private healthcare”.
A Seville-based association of women who have breast cancer, Amama, announced on Wednesday they would sue the regional government.
Women “continue to live with cancer without knowing”, its president, Ángela Claverol, told Antena 3 television.
The indignation at the failings saw women-led protests erupt in several Andalusian cities on Wednesday which local media said drew thousands of people.
In the regional capital Seville, women dressed in pink held signs with the words “your handling kills us”. One protester, who had undergone a double mastectomy, kissed another breast cancer patient, an AFP journalist saw.
Andalusia’s leader Juanma Moreno bowed to the pressure and announced the resignation of his health minister on Wednesday evening.
Andalusian government spokeswoman Carolina España had earlier announced 119 more professionals would bolster breast cancer units and that the authorities were carrying out “a thorough analysis” to clarify what had happened.
