The Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Sanidad, MS) has formalised the Patient Participation Table (Mesa para la Participación de los Pacientes, MPTP), a collegiate body attached to the Secretariat of State for Health. The measure gives patient organisations a defined channel for contributing to health-policy design, follow-up and participation arrangements.
The MS said the MPTP responds to the growing role of patient organisations in national health-system plans and strategies. Its functions include advice on participation mechanisms in the regulatory framework, evaluation of measures to increase patient involvement in national health-system bodies, and promotion of health-improvement actions.
The table will also support communication campaigns, training for patient organisations and dissemination of good practice in public participation. A further task is to provide information for a future census of patient organisations and help identify representatives for other collegiate bodies.
The MPTP will operate through a plenary and a standing committee, with at least two meetings each year. It will include 11 institutional representatives and 11 patient representatives. Three patient seats will be proposed by state-level organisations representing patients with low-prevalence diseases. Patient seats will be renewed every two years, and experts and observers may also take part.
The measure should be read alongside LiSAH’s earlier article on the Pharmaceutical Industry Alliance, which the MS constituted on 15 April 2026. The Alliance is a broad pharmaceutical-policy dialogue forum covering public administrations, industry, healthcare professionals, patient organisations and civil society. The MPTP has a different role. It is intended to strengthen the organisation, training and representativeness of patient participation across the health system.
The two initiatives may therefore become connected, but not interchangeable. The Alliance creates a multi-stakeholder setting for discussion of medicines policy, innovation, sustainability and equity. The MPTP gives patient organisations a more defined basis from which to contribute to those wider discussions and to other national health-policy processes.
Source: Ministry of Health
Link: Sanidad sitúa la voz del paciente como pilar clave del Sistema Nacional de Salud (Health places the patient voice as a key pillar of the National Health System)
Date: 17 April 2026
