Books for asset management in hospitals in Seville.

Hospitals from ancient Seville had an important heritage for survival of the institution and its patients. In order to keep this heritage, the officialdom settled down several control mechanisms that would serve to manage a profitable management of their income and rights. For this purpose, they developed devising instruments able to preserve their possessions and put them into operation. This article attempts to identify the defining elements of these books, called “protocolos de bienes” (protocols goods), indicating their characteristics and evolution from archaic models until the final form. This final form was reached late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, at which time devoted use main codex of hospitality. To do this, we used the documentary collec-tions of Seville, preserved in different archives of the city, from where they have taken several significant examples showing the changes that occurred in both its internal structure and its mate-rials manufacturing, underlining the participation of official, booksellers, illuminators and calligraphers. Similarly, it has high-lighted the multifaceted and multifunctional character of this ins-titutions that became also a corporate identity. The multiplicity of hospitals in Sevilla had different types and features of protocols, which were modificated according to the different needs of each institution.

Economic crisis and national health system

The text analyzes the impact of the economic crisis in some critical aspects of the National Health System: outcomes, health expenditure, remuneration policy and privatization through Private Public Partnership models. Some health outcomes related to social inequalities are worrying. Reducing public health spending has increased the fragility of the health system, reduced wage income of workers in the sector and increased heterogeneity between regions. Finally, the evidence indicates that privatization does not mean more efficiency and better governance. Deep reforms are needed to strengthen the National Health System.

Commodification of health care systems: The Catalan case

Commodification of the public healthcare system has been a growing process in recent decades, especially in universal healthcare systems and in high-income countries like Spain.  There are substantial differences in the healthcare systems of each autonomous region of Spain, among which Catalonia is characterized by having a mixed healthcare system with complex partnerships and interactions between the public and private healthcare sectors.  Using a narrative review approach, this article addresses various aspects of the Catalan healthcare system, characterizing the privatization and commodification of health processes in Catalonia from a historical perspective with particular attention to recent legislative changes and austerity measures.  The article approximates, the eventual effects that commodification and austerity measures will have on the health of the population and on the structure, accessibility, effectiveness, equity and quality of healthcare services.