Forbes' annual guide to best doctors in Spanish hospitals released

YOU DON'T have to be rich to make it onto the Forbes list – or, at least, a doctor's salary is enough, as 165 medics in Spain already know.

No single practitioner comes out first or 165th, and they are based in both the public health service and the private sector or, in some cases, dovetailing both. 

The latest edition of Forbes España's book Best Doctors Spain is now out, splitting those named into a total of 27 specialist areas and including them based upon merits such as scientific achievements, awards or distinctions earned, their presence in the communications media, the opinions of their patients, their positive impact on the hospitals they work for, their positions of relevance in their field, and their contributions to care, research and training or education. 

Editor of Forbes España Andrés Rodríguez says: “With this manual, we're seeking to recognise the excellence in Spanish health care in all areas.”

Spain has long been among the top countries in the world for quality of service and care and levels of training and techniques in medicine – although the actual care received, waiting times and doctors' knowledge is, like in all countries, a postcode lottery, the standard across the board is generally high.

Just like every health service in the world, its actual quality will always be affected by whether it receives just enough, insufficient, or more than ample funding, but in general, if a patient goes to his or her GP with a concern, symptom or issue, the correct referral to the nearest specialist or for whatever tests are necessary will be made immediately, any medication needed and which is covered by the public health system will be prescribed irrespective of the cost to the service, and nobody is made to 'feel silly' or 'feel guilty' for raising what is, to them personally, a legitimate concern.

Spanish doctors usually say they would rather 'waste time' on what turns out to be 'nothing' than not be consulted for what turns out to be 'something', and which could have been successfully treated if the patient had arranged a consultation at the first signs of its appearance.

Prevention is also key in the Spanish health service: Mammograms are given to all women from age 45 to 69 inclusive, although if they are older or younger and request one, will be referred anyway; colon cancer screening is carried out for the entire population from age 50, and even smear tests will involve a full gynaecological examination with ultrasounds, whether or not there is any cause.

Hospitals included

The 2020 edition is the fourth annual publication of Best Doctors Spain, and covers private and public hospitals nationwide.

Those in the Greater Madrid region are the Jiménez Díaz Foundation University Hospital (private), La Paz University Hospital (public), the Niño Jesús Children's University Hospital (public, and the only exclusively paediatric hospital in Spain), the Quirónsalud Hospital network (private), the Puerta de Hierro University Hospital in Majadahonda (public), the Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital in Móstoles (public), the Hospital Clínico San Carlos (public), the Ramón y Cajal (public), the San Rafael (free at the point of use and run by a religious order), the Clínica Ruber – both the Ruber Juan Bravo and Ruber Internacional (private), Hospital La Luz (private), the Teknon network (private), the Infanta Sofía Hospital in San Sebastián de los Reyes (public), the Gregorio Marañón (public), the Vithas Internacional (private), the General University Hospital in Villalba (private), the Infanta Elena Hospital in Valdemoro (public), and a handful of bespoke clinics run by the doctors named.

Those in Catalunya are mainly in the Barcelona area and include the Quirónsalud (encompassing Catalunya General University Hospital), Teknon and Dexeus networks of private clinics, the HM Hospitales nationwide private clinic network (based in Madrid, Galicia, Catalunya, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León), and the public-sector hospitals Germans Trias i Pujol, Clínic Barcelona, and Vall d'Hebron.

The Hospital Clínica Universitaria de Navarra, the Cruces University Hospital in Barakaldo (Basque Country), and the Virgen del Rocío in Sevilla also feature a few times.

Other hospitals, private and public, are in Castilla-La Mancha (Guadalajara and Albacete), Castilla y León (Salamanca), Asturias, Valencia, Cantabria (Santander), and Galicia (Pontevedra).

Some of the hospitals in Barcelona and Madrid are famous for their celebrity patients: FC Barça midfielder Gerard Piqué's long-term partner, Colombian rocker Shakira, gave birth to both their sons, Milan and Sasha, at the city's Teknon clinic in 2015 and 2013; and King Felipe VI and his daughters, Princess Leonor, 15 and the Infanta Sofía, 13, were born at the Clínica Ruber in Madrid.

Doctors and specialist areas outside Madrid and Catalunya

Although the capital city and its wider region, and Spain's second-largest metropolitan area, Barcelona, make up the bulk of entries, Forbes doctors can be found nationwide.

In the Basque Country, Dr Pedro Manuel Gamboa Setién, a specialist in allergies, and neurologist Dr Mar Mendibe Bilbao (Cruces in Barakaldo), and in neighbouring Navarra, radiotherapy oncologist Dr Felipe Calvo Manuel are listed, and at Asturias Central University Hospital, Dr Luis Fernández-Vega Sanz (ophthalmology) appears.

For Castilla-La Mancha, Dr Mercedes Guerra Requena of the CEMTRO Clinic and Guadalajara University Hospital stands out as an specialist in vascular surgery and angiology as does, on the same lines, Dr Gonzalo Aldámiz-Echevarría del Castillo, a cardiovascular surgeon at Albacete Quirónsalud.

Salamanca, in Castilla y León, is mentioned through chest surgeon Dr Marcelo Jiménez López of the Complejo Asistencial Universitario and haematologist Dr Marcos González Díaz of the Hospital Clínico Universitario.

Santander's Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital is mentioned through cardiologist Dr Javier Zueco, and in Galicia, Pontevedra's University Hospital Complex appears along with pneumologist Dr Adolfo Baloira Villar.

For Valencia, the Hospital Clínico gains an entry via preventive medicine specialist Dr Rafael Manuel Ortí Lucas, as does the private Quirónsalud centre, via dermatologist Dr José María Ricart Vayà.

In Andalucía, Sevilla is mentioned twice, with Dr Salvador Morales Conde (general surgery and digestive system) from the Virgen del Rocío, which is public, and the private Quirónsalud Sagrado Corazón, along with facial surgeon Dr José Luis Gutiérrez of the Virgen del Rocío. 

One of the Catalunya medics among the 165 is traumatologist and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Xavier Mir Bullo, who works at the Barcelona Dexeus University Hospital – and also on the official medical service for MotoGP.

This means whenever one of the Spaniards in the sport – and they make up the largest national group in MotoGP – suffers a fall and breaks a bone, it is likely to be Dr Mir Bullo and his team who treat and operate on them.

Two famous doctors not on the Forbes list – a factor that will surprise many readers familiar with Spanish medical news - are Ana Lluch Hernández, head of Valencia University's faculty of medicine and of the city's Hospital Clínico's haematology and oncology team, long held to be one of the country's top specialists in and researchers into breast cancer, and traumatologist, orthopaedic and plastic surgeon Pedro Cavadas, based in Manises, near Valencia airport, who is world-famous for his limb transplants and reimplants, including legs above the knee, arms above the elbow, and even faces.