In 2021, the Amancio Ortega Foundation, established by the founder of Zara, announced a large-scale charitable initiative: seven autonomous communities in Spain received donations of ten state-of-the-art cancer treatment units. The total value of this equipment was €280 million. However, despite the high-profile promise, none of these devices are currently in use in public hospitals. As a result, patients are forced to seek care in private clinics, while regional budgets spend millions covering their treatments.
A long road to launch: equipment, bureaucracy, and construction
The first patients will not be able to receive treatment on these new machines before the end of 2026—and then only in Galicia. In Madrid and Comunidad Valenciana, the rollout is expected in 2027, with the entire project only set to be fully operational by 2029. There are several reasons for the delay. First, the machines simply did not exist at the time of the announcement—they had to be designed and manufactured from scratch. Second, constructing buildings to house such complex equipment has proved extremely demanding and expensive. For example, in Valencia, they are building a true bunker with nine layers of reinforced concrete and walls 2.5 meters thick to ensure maximum safety.
Added to this are difficulties in hiring and training specialists, as well as mandatory inspections and licensing by the nuclear regulator. Every stage requires time and approvals, only creating further delays.
Patients caught between private and public healthcare
While public centers are still under construction, patients are forced to turn to private clinics that already have such equipment. For example, in Madrid there are two such centers—one at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and another in the Quirón network. Over the past three years, 156 people have received treatment in the capital alone, most of them children. The amounts that regional governments pay to private providers are striking: Madrid alone spends around two million euros per year on these services.
In Galicia, spending on treatment at private clinics has grown nearly fivefold in four years. In 2020, less than 200,000 euros was spent, but by 2024 the figure approached one million. A similar situation is seen in Andalucía, where the cost of a single course of therapy can reach 59,000 euros.
When to expect change
As construction and licensing continue, regions can’t refuse the services of private clinics. Even those that did not receive equipment from the Ortega Foundation, such as Cantabria, have to sign multimillion-euro contracts to treat their patients. The first public facilities are expected to open no earlier than the end of 2026, and the entire system won’t be fully operational until 2029.
Until then, regional budgets will continue bearing additional costs, and patients will have to wait for the chance to receive advanced treatment in public hospitals. Spain risks spending almost a decade rolling out a technology that could already be saving lives.
